江南老农

Another year close to the end, it’s my 7^th year in the States. Want to write down a summary of several key aspects of my life in the passing 2007, before I start to think about my goals in 2008.

Career:

·         Assessment - 80/100

·         Delivered good results on all projects I worked on; unfortunately the company was struggling (stock from $90 to $45) just as the whole Financial Service industry. Can’t be very happy if we are losing.

·         Responsibility has grown steadily; start to be a people manager

·         Led a new strategy development taking a customer centered innovation approach, which was very different from the traditional COF analytically heavy approach. Good learning in customer focused innovation, as well as managing a pretty big project team.

·         I didn’t make good improvement on my soft skills. My working style was still the very straightforward / forceful one that was natural for me. This is my major developmental opportunity.

Family:

·         Assessment - 90/100

·         Expect to be a farther soon. Our baby comes probably 6 months earlier than we originally planned, but really no complaints. We are happy Daddy-and-Mommy-To-Be

·         Bought a condo for my parents in China. All the past 30 years, it has all been them giving everything they had to their kids, now I am starting to fulfill my responsibility to them as a son. I am very happy that I can make their retired life more comfortable. They have always been very pride of me and this makes me feel that I didn’t disappoint them.

·         Still live apart from my wife, what a pain.

Wealth:

·         Assessment - 95/100

·         The condo we bought early this year has appreciated probably 50%. I won’t sell it unless I can buy a better one for my parents anyway ( I hope there will be such a day ). So all the short term appreciation doesn’t really mean much for me. But hadn’t I bought it early, I wouldn’t have enough money to but it for them now. Plus, I wouldn’t dare to buy any real estate in today’s market given the bubbles in China.

·         My investment in stock market has done well till Oct. Lately it lost 25%. Overall, I am probably still 30% up for the year. No comparison to some folks who made several hundreds percent gains in the crazy Chinese market, but I am very happy with achieving my benchmark: beating the market, and >20% return.

·         Wife started to work end of last year, the days that we can get tax refund from Uncle Sam is gone. A good thing though, I hope I can pay more and more tax to Uncle Sam in the future.... :P

Health:

·         Assessment – 80/100

·         Couldn’t keep up with Gym exercise with Work, Family and Golf. Health condition is OK.

Others:

·         Assessment – 60/100

·         My golf score sucks. I set a goal of breaking 90 at the beginning of the year, I only managed to break 100 once. So it was not even close to my goal. I do feel I have come a long way and now have a good understanding of golf swing; otherwise, I wouldn’t even give myself 60 in this category.

·         Almost didn’t spend any time on other hobbies such as tennis, ski etc.

·         Still not reading enough books, I probably read 3-4 books the whole year, less than the 10 books mark I set at the beginning of the year.

好久没用的相机和镜头拿出来试了试，发现几个镜头和 B+W 的 Polarizer 还是比较牛的，没什么技巧，大白天的，拍出来也还可以看。这几天准备有空研究一下 PhotoShop， 以后多拍拍片子，上网去搞个 Album。

Blue Ridge Pkwy 的 Abott Lake，风景如画，下午两点。第二幅的阳光从左边过来，用了Polarizer后左右天空差别有点太大，以后试试影响小一点的 Polarizer 角度。没有调 Saturation，17-40 的色彩比狗头还是强太多了。 (Canon 17-40L, B+W Polarizer) 

Pkwy 和 James River 交界处， 黄昏。(Canon 17-40L, B+W Polarizer)

Hiking 小道边，一叶知秋，下午三点。 (Canon 70-300 IS)