Zhu Xinquan's Blog

iphone application

2008-10-30T14:13:03Z

It's been a while. Actually I was not busy but lazy to update this blog.
My life has been changed a lot with this global financial turmoil and Now I believe everything could happen like my company Lehman Brothers, that I thought would work for a long period, went bankruptcy. Also getting a little bored with my life in Tokyo.

Maybe not bored but just back to normal. Also my written English getting worse and my Japanese level does not improve so much. However, one more exciting thing was the Dictionary in Apple's iphone app store surprisingly selling well. Today I checked out, Korean English Dictionary KE No.4 in Korean app store. Chinese nglish Dictionary CE No.5 in China app store!

What a surprise for me! Check this out:

Chinese/English Dictionary

Korean/English Dictionary

And all my applications

Chinese Spring Festival Coming Soon

2008-01-28T02:48:36Z

Chinese New Year, also called Chinese Spring Festival (春节) used to be the happiest season for me just like the Christmas season for western people. People gather together with their friends and family and I can reunion with my nephew and playmates and we can play together and get the “Red packets” from my parents and grandparents and don’t have to get up early and go to school. It used to be such a good holiday that I was so excited to look forward to when it approaches while this sort of feeling fades and I could not find much happy as used to be. Perhaps it is a festival for kids as my mother told me.

]]> However, I still feel good to have the date back home coming soon after leaving the country almost more than half year. Bad news is this year might be a crazy new year for some people in China because of the heaviest snow causes the transport chaos and millions of people are not able to get back their home to reunion with their family. I am also worrying about the flight from Tokyo to Shanghai would be canceled.

This is the BBC news
Transport chaos in snow-hit China

The heaviest snow in decades is continuing to cause chaos across China ahead of the busy Lunar New Year holiday, state media report.

Going back to China from 2nd of Feb to 17th of Feb and Hope everything is OK. I really look forward to seeing you, my old friends!

Not a morgan stanleyer any more

2008-01-21T07:29:14Z

I have received some emails asking about IT division of Morgan Stanley Shanghai. First of all, I would like to clarify that I am not Morgan Stanley employee any more and I can't disclose any confidential information that I am not supposed to tell someone else.

Morgan Stanley is the best company that I have ever known of until now. B People are genius and friendly there and definitely it's a good company to work for but I would like to say it is not suitable for everybody.

]]> I believe Morgan Stanley Shanghai is growing very fast and there are a lot of opportunities there. If you are interested in, you can go to its website or I believe there are lot of head hunters out there you can pick up for your career move. One thing I want to point out that it's a not an IT company. The culture is not like Google or Microsoft. Bear in mind that you are going to join a finical company not an IT company before you take your step.

Snowboarding and Night bus

2007-12-11T07:27:33Z

It was just happened without knowing where i was going and who exactly I was going with. I was just told from my friend that there was a good deal of snowboarding ski trip pass. I accepted and it turned out that 11 people joined the group. And it was a lot of fun. Village, snow, mountain and hot spring. But also the nightmare - the night bus though, at least for me.

]]> All this happened started from last Friday. The guy told me to assemble at ikebukuro at 10:00 and in fact the bus took off around 11:20 just because I was late for playing tennis last time. What a big revenge! The nightmare lasted the whole night that I couldn't believe that many other people were able to sleep well in the bus while I couldn't get sleep at all.

After arriving the hotel at about 6 early in the morning, we picked up the wears and snowboards from the rent room and took bus to the ski resort. As in my case without any sleep over the night!! It was a big challenge for me. And even more, hsearing from other people that snowboard is much cooler than ski, as it looks like and none of us choose ski, I was forced to pick up the snowboard in the rental room although I never tried it before. It turned out I suffered injuries to arms and legs and I have to give up going to mountain to ski again the next day. But found that snowboard is not just cool but also lot of fun. Steeve gave us personal training, which mainly target for the girls though.

While the good thing was that part from the snowboarding. I got the chance to have a look around in the place Hakuba 白馬 with nick, mie and chao, who were exhausted same as me. The place was amazing beautiful after the snow on the second day. And we can not help ourselves to play snowball. There are a few of nice cafes and restaurants in the small village. We picked up this Italian restaurant and had a really nice lunch especially in this snow world. Would be really romantic if you take your girl there I could image.

Overall, it was really good trip except the night bus. I would definitely go there again by Shinkansen.

Cute deer in the Nara park

2007-11-25T02:29:08Z

I love animals and especially those deer wander around the city streets which makes the city blend with natural. The second day of my kansai trip was the nara that I have been looking forward to since long time ago. It only takes about 40 mins from kyoto to nara by the ＪＲみやこ路快速. There are lots of tourist information in the exit of the train station. Turn right after you get out of the station, cross one road. Comes with the main street of Nara, which I guess it might be the biggest street it has considering it is such a small town. We did not book the hotel in advance. But it doesn't take long for us to find one even it is the busy season when we went there.

]]> The deer is not that tame as I was told. But some of them really obedient. Look at these:

Having nice weather, good view and those cute deers, Nara is really a good traditional city to visit. Afterwards, it was our important part of this trip - going to the only bar in Nara and meet some village girl. But we were still too shy to talk to those girls in the bar as I can expect.

Go to the Apple's Armes

2007-11-17T07:47:59Z

Apple? Macbook? Mac OS X? used to be so far away from my life, nonetheless I just fall in love with the Mac OS and bought my Macbook soon after get my credit card in Japan and regretted not knowing apple sooner before. Windows OS becomes more and more awkward to me after I switch to Mac OS.

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My Mac Book.

Apply A Credit Card in Japan

2007-10-25T02:37:53Z

Japan is a country where somehow national discrimination happens every now and then. Let's say that foreigners applying credit card in Japan would be a good example. Most of the credit card companies reject your application basically because of you are foreigner here regardless of your job, income, profile or whatsoever.

]]> Mitsui Sumitomo Bank/card is a good example. They turned down my application twice. I have been trying to telephone them and ask about the reason. But they just simply answer with no English speaking people there to answer my question. The reason I apply its card is the point can convert to ANA miles. Unfortunately it seems to me Mitsui sumitomo is the only partner of ANA while this company is so domestic and anti-foreign.

No wonder there is someone on the internet is shouting:

“All because Mitsui Sumitomo Bank does NOT VALUE THEIR CUSTOMERS. WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO MORE BUSINESS WITH THIS BANK IF THEY'RE NOT GOING TO GIVE ME A CREDIT CARD!!! I AM NOT A CREDIT RISK! LOOK AT MY PROFILE YOU STUPID IDIOTS! “

For any foreigners out there living in Japan, one of the choice is Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (三菱東京UFJ銀行), this bank give me the first credit card in Japan, although I just been here for about 3 month without any credit record. They even don't need a hanko (Inkan) while most of the other bank need you to provide it when apply credit card. I applied its credit card and banking card together in Hiroo branch. The bank clerk there is very nice. However the small trick is, although I have been working in my company for 3 months, but I was told to fill the form that I have been working in my current company for 3 years. That's a little bit funny that the bank itself cheats their counterparty credit company to work around the traditional Japanese business routine. Anyway, they are very friendly to the foreign customers.

My UFJ-VISA card:

Keep on blogging

2007-10-08T15:52:35Z

It's been a long time since the last time update the Blog. Just got a mail from Daniel complain about no update of the Blog for a long time. Suddenly feel that someone is still interested in this crappy blog. how should I give up updating then?

]]> However, there are some reasons of it. The lifestyle in Tokyo is really different to my life in shanghai. I started this blog in my first company, at that time I kind of have some time to in my work time to ponder unpon something. But those kind fo time is not coming back again, at least, in the near future.

Appologize to people out there still check this blog occasionally, I am going to write more of my new life here, as you can see I just change my blog name from "Zhu Xinquan's Programming Life" to "Zhu Xinquan's Blog" indicating that I am not doing programming any more in my work. But this doesn't mean that I am not in interested in Programming any more. It might become my avocation or more specifically speaking become an amateur.

From my word above, you can easily tell that this blog is going to smell technical-less. After being here more than 3 month, I feel like I need to stop some "city" lifestyle like drinking in a bar, or spend the whole night in the club. Instead, making my heart more peaceful. Think it over and write it down and share some of them to other people.

Multiple Emacs Shell Buffers

2007-09-25T02:53:39Z

Having my work changed a lot during the last year, from a Lunix developer to a half developer half support and now are purely support, I do not have many chance to use Emacs that often anymore, but I keep to use to it as much as possible. After all it's my first editor in my programmer career. One thing I like is its shell buffers. Unfortunately, It only support one shell as I thought before. Because if you type M-x shell to open a new shell buffer, if you already have one open that will just switch to the existing one.

]]> Recently I find a solution is to use M-x rename-buffer to change the name of the first shell buffer before creating another one.

3 Days in Korea

2007-06-17T09:32:24Z

Having spent 3 days in korea(most time in Seoul), I find that there are considerable japanophiles here. Although Japan occupied korea several decades before, it turns out not much korean hate japanese. So many Japanese stuff here, japanese resturants, Japanese signs everywhere, japanese TV channel, ... I even got a warm help from three korean girls while I was trying to find a hotel in gumi. They thought I was japanese once.

]]> The welcome sign to japanese tourist:

Korea, in my eyes is not as bad as someone said, and not as good as I image. It's a developed country but still many vagrants and baggers sleeping in the numerous tunnels in the downtown of seoul. Refer to the tunnels in seoul, there are too many of it that make the walker much uncomfortable to cross the streets. Every time you need to go down and go up. it's even worse when you have a baggage with you, which is my case this time.
Some picture i took during the stay.

However, I felt warm when I arrived the airport. Because many service is available in Chinese and some people working in the airport can provide Chinese service. Hopefully, it would be better experience if I got a chance to visit Korea next time.

The O.C.

2007-05-19T13:00:22Z

I get addicted to the American drama television series the O.C.(The orange city) these days. Iit was past-popularity show(start from 2003) though. I just run into it from a HMV shop in which the DVD version of season 1 is selling off. I need to admit. I'm always slow for the new things, at least, for the past years. When something new stuffs come out and draw the majority crazy, I usually skip it over. while the time when most people get tied of it, I'm incline to be fond of it. That's a big problem of me...

© don't know yet, please contact me if you feel that this picture should not copied here.

]]> Whether or no, I like the TV series very much. beforetime, I never liked western actress. I always believe that the most beautiful actress is from asia, like twins, Noriko Sakai, Li Ruotong, etc. (I get into these ones in various period during my childhood, high school and even in college). But now I realize that there are some amazing girl in the western world too, like the one in the O.C., Marissa(Mischa Barton). She is gorgeous, check out the picture:

© don't know yet, please contact me if you feel that this picture should not copied here.

secondly, the guy Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) is very cool. I really like his fast and cool English

© don't know yet, please contact me if you feel that this picture should not copied here.

I like the show because he recall my high school era and company me to get through the hard time.

Happy Birthday to Myself again

2007-05-16T06:17:19Z

It's been a hardest time ever in my life. Believe me or not, I will get through it though. I guess I still has the right to have fun. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Xinquan! Everything is going to be OK.

Language Exchange, Japanese and Chinese

2007-01-08T15:06:20Z

hi there,
I just moved to Tokyo and I am interested in Japanese language and culture .

Now I am looking for a language exchange partner who can speak Japanese probably interested in Chinese. I don't use much Japanese in my daily work but very eager to learn. I can speak English and Chinese. About me? Click here

Regards,
Xinquan

A fragment of old memory

2006-12-18T13:19:07Z

I'm thinking of this for a long time and finally decided to share this video which is made by me. Whilst I review this video, I always feel that it just like all these things are happened yesterday. I have not seen the most of the people in this video for a quite a long time and I know I may never meet some of them again in my life. So I just share this video, and hopefully they could see it as a good recipe of bad mood. I hope you may also lift the corner of your mouth while you’re watching this video, my dear friends.

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A good way to remember hiragana characters

2006-12-03T12:24:55Z

Let me tell you my good experience of learning Japanese. To learn a forThe first thing you should do is remember all the hiragana(平假名，平仮名). But unfortunately it suffers me a lot at first. Fair enough, I just found a good way to remember all these wired characters.

]]> When I was a junior school student, I was one of the fans of the Japanese TV play “Tokyo Love Story (東京ラブストーリー) ” and love the theme song very much! I even can recite the pronunciation of every lyric though I didn’t understand what the singer was singing about. But I do can sing it! That’s quite useful for me now. I search the Internet and download the lyric of this song and began to read and sing the hiragana characters one by one! It just took me less than 15 minutes to remember all the hiragana characters, which cover most of the hiragana characters. It’s cool, aha? This is the lovely song:

なにからつたえればいいのか
わからないままときはながれて
うかんではきえてゆく
ありふれたことばだけ
きみがあんまりすてきだから
あのひあのときあのばしよで
きみにあえなかつたら
ぼくうらはいつまでも
みしらぬふたにのまま
だれかがあまくさそうことばに
もうこころゆれたいしないで
せつないけどそんなふうに
こころはしばれない
あしたになればきみをきつと
いまよりもつとすきになる
そのすべてがぼくのなかでときを
こえてゆく
きみのかぜにつばさになる
きみをまもりつつける
やわらかくきみをつつむ
あのかぜになる
ただすなおにすきといえないで
あのひあのときあのばしよで
きみにあえなかつたら
ぼくうらはいつまでも
いまきみのこころがおいた
ことばおめでかたおよせて
ぼくはわすれないこのひを
きみをだれにもわたさない
みしらぬふたにのまま
きみのかぜにつばさになる
きみをまもりつつける
やわらかくきみをつつむ
あのかぜになる
たぶんもうすぐあめもやんでふたり
あのひあのときあのばしよで
きみにあえなかつたら
ぼくうらはいつまでも
みしらぬふたにのまま
だれかがあまくさそうこと
ばにこころゆれたりしないで
きみをつつむあのかぜになる
たすがれ
あのひあのときあのばしよで
きみにあえなかつたら
ぼくうらはいつまでも
みしらぬふたにのまま

Now what maybe you wanna do is to pick up your one of your favorite Japanese songs and start to sing it with the lyric and you will find it is so easy to remember the odd characters.