The Ji Village News

季庄新闻–Haidong Ji’s Blog

My son had doubts about Santa for a couple of years, but as long as the presents kept coming, he simply played along. This past Christmas, the secret was finally out.

He has tried various ways to debunk this myth. While we were discussing what he wanted to get before Christmas, he mentioned that if this year’s presents were wrapped in the same paper as last year, then Santa is not real. Mommy then bought a different wrapping paper.

As I mentioned before, I stopped doing the live Santa thing to him a few years ago. On the night of the 23rd, I donned my suit, with a couch pillow tucked under it, stood in front of our tree so Mommy could take a picture:

The next day, we started opening presents. We told him Santa came and miraculously took a picture of himself in our camera. He was very excited with the presents so he looked at the pictures very briefly.

Later, he started pointing out problems with that picture. First, Santa looked brown, unlike most Santa he has seen. I said Santa comes with all different colors: white, black, and brown. Then he said Santa was not fat enough, to which I had no ready answer. I have always been skinny. He then zoomed onto my left eye, which was not covered by the white wig, and confirmed Santa’s true identity. We all had a good laugh.

To my readers that do not have Christmas tradition, Santa always looms large during the Christmas holiday season. They appear in malls and shopping centers after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. In fact, a cottage industry grows around it. When I was in Boston last November, there were at least 2 men who stayed at the same hotel I was at. They were hired by some kind of Santa company, on a rotating schedule to cover Burlington Mall nearby, from 9:00am to 9:pm. I don’t know how much they were paid.

This is a picture of New Year’s Eve.

Now the Santa myth is debunked, tooth fairy is next. He has already expressed doubts about it.

A belated Happy New Year to all my readers.

I re-organized my post categories a bit, so readers can pick and choose what you want more easily. Some people don’t care about technology, while others only like the technology part of this blog. This will make it easier for people to read things they want to read.

Here are some examples on how to subscribe. You should be able to figure out the rest based on these examples.

If you want the whole thing, point your RSS/ATOM reader to:
http://www.HaidongJi.com or http://www.HaidongJi.com/feed, just like before.

If you just want posts under EastWest category, point your RSS/ATOM reader to:
http://www.HaidongJi.com/category/eastwest/ or http://www.HaidongJi.com/category/eastwest/feed

If you just want posts under SqlServer subcategory, which is under Technology category, point your RSS/ATOM reader to:
http://www.haidongji.com/category/technology/sqlserver/ or http://www.haidongji.com/category/technology/sqlserver/feed

In addition, I created a new subcategory under Technology called DatabaseInteroperability, which talks about database interoperability issues. I am very interested in this area, and am currently focusing on Sql Server, MySql, and Oracle. I’d be happy to hear topic suggestions from my readers.

In both Sql Server and Oracle, permission changes to a user take into effect right away, even when said user is connected at the time you made the change.

In MySql, it is a little different, depending on how the permissions are given. If you use the GRANT statement, then it takes into effect right away. However, if you create user and give it permissions by manipulating the user table in the mysql system database directly, that is, using Sql statements, then you need to issue:

flush privileges

for those changes to be picked up.

I have WEP wireless connection at home. Sometimes, after waking up my computer from its hibernation state because of inactivity, I would lose internet connection. The wireless bar in system trey would still show excellent connetion, though.

Here is how I solve this problem:

1. Go to command prompt;
2. Run this command: ipconfig /renew

Prince Roy tagged me for this blogging game, where I am expected to reveal 5 things the world doesn’t know about me. Here goes:

1. I suck at important exams, for a variety of reasons, chief among them are not studying hard enough, not being able to concentrate during study, or lack of interest. There were other factors too, which I shall explain below.

After 5 years of primary school, I failed the exams to get into the best boarding middle school in the city, No. 3 Middle and High School of Zaozhuang City, thus set forth my long and legendary history of exam failing. Both my older brothers were in that school then. The exams were given at this school in the city. That was part of the problem, because it was the first time ever I went to the city. There were buses, trucks, multi-story buildings along paved roads, department stores, and even occasional cars to gawk at. And get this, the most amazing of all was a freaking UNDERGROUND restaurant in the city, where they cook and customers eat underneath the ground, how cool was that! I believe the restaurant is called 四季春地下饭店. Four Season Spring Underground Restaurant is the literal translation, so you get the idea. My mind was all over the places during the exams. I was thrilled at the prospect of visiting that restaurant. Consequently, I flunked the exams, for which I was ridiculed and belittled for a long time.

However, I don’t think I could blame everything on the UNDERGROUND restaurant, though it certainly didn’t help. Maybe I was a good student in the Ji Village elementary school, but at the city level, I probably wasn’t good enough then.

I proceeded to be a zombie in No. 4 middle school, where my dad was a Chinese teacher then. That’s also where all students in that district were supposed to go. I had no purposes and objectives, and did not work very hard. Puberty and hormone started to affect me at this stage. Once again, I flunked the high school entrance exams to No. 3. My dad had to use the few connections he had to get me into the second best, No. 8 Middle and High School. Once again, I was ridiculed and belittled for a long time.

I proceeded to be a zombie in No. 8 high school, where I boarded. I had no purposes and objectives, and did not work very hard. Puberty and hormone really kicked in now. Once again, I flunked the college entrance exams, the most important exams of my life. Needless to say, I was ridiculed and belittled and deemed hopeless.

Now I faced a choice: go to the small community junior college type teacher’s school, or repeat the last grade of high school and give the exams another shot. I chose the later. I repeated that grade finally at No. 3. I don’t think we paid much money for repeating the grade there, because the new headmaster was transferred there from No. 8. He saw some potential in me and probably thought I could help bumping up the good college entrance rate for his new school, No. 3.

I finally woke up and worked hard this time, and redeemed myself in my second try. My total score was the third highest in the city, so I was a 探花. My math score was the highest in the city. So was my Oral English. I could enter any university in China with that score. At that time, a high school senior picked the universities before the exams. So I was admitted to Xiamen University, my first choice. My major was International Finance. At that time, maybe even today, any major or course of study that has “International” in it was immensely popular.

Alas, my misery didn’t end there. I had to endure the shame of being a 复读生, having failed the first time. I was one or two years older than most of my classmates. The stigma of that, maybe self-imposed, is I am older, not as smart or cute as the younger ones, so I didn’t tell any classmates that I was a 复读生. To this day, like Prince Roy and others, I still have nightmares about exams (Read the comments of that post too.)

All right, now the heavy stuff is dealt with. Here are the rest.

2. I don’t watch broadcast or cable television. I don’t read newspapers. I am about to give up on news magazines.

I do have a TV set, and use it to watch rented DVDs from Netflix. I rarely find TV episodes or reality series interesting. Even if they are, I can rent them if I want to. As to newspapers, we used to have Chicago Tribune, but stopped that subscription a while ago. We had Time magazine subscription but gave it up recently. We still subscribe to Newsweek and National Geographic. I am about to give up on Newsweek. I still like National Geographic. By the way, I wonder if readers noticed how thin this week’s issue of Newsweek is. I think it is about one third of its usual size. My better half commented that the holiday season is over and companies do not need to put out so much advertisement, which makes sense.

I get my news almost entirely online: http://news.google.com and blogs, with occasional visits to YouTube.

3. I once saved my house from burning down.

I couldn’t remember when, but it had to be when I was in elementary school, during the summer wheat harvest season. I went home alone one day, and walked into the yard of my grandparents. I saw a small fire spreading from the outdoor cooking area. Next to the fire was a tall bundle of dried sorghum stems leaning against a jujube (Chinese date) tree. Sorghum stems, along with straws and stems from various grains we harvest, are normally used for cooking. We also used wheat straw to fill our pillows when I was little. Anyway, the date tree was right next to our house. With the wheat straw thatched roof, it could easily catch the fire if it spread. I quickly gathered water from the jars and pots I could find and put out the fire.

4. I can get nervous when speaking in public, depending on how confident I am with the subject.

I developed this nervousness during high school. My symptoms are wavering voice and short of breath. I could use a few tips to cope with nervousness from my readers

5. Related to the last item, my hand is probably going to shake if I pour you tea, liquor, or beer.

Like the one above, this is also embarrassing. In traditional Chinese banquet, strong grain liquor is served. The liquor cup is usually pretty small. And good thing too, because bigger cup can send you under the table in no time. To show respect to people at your table, you are supposed to toast and pour liquor to their cups a few times during the course of the meal. That’s where my problem is. My hand can get shaky during these trying times.

You are also supposed to get the guest of honor drunk during a banquet. Anything less is disrespectful. I think our banquet culture needs serious reform. I like the food and fun, but I don’t like the pretentiousness displayed by so many people.

To overcome this shaking handicap, it is my New Year’s resolution to work out everyday to build up my muscles.

Now I am done. What are your secrets? Don’t worry, I won’t report you to authorities.

Sometimes you may want to know the total row counts of all tables in a database. The script below will give you a rough idea. However, it is not guaranteed to be accurate, though. It works in both Sql Server 2000 and Sql Server 2005.

select sum(rowcnt) from sysindexes inner join sysobjects on sysindexes.id=sysobjects.id where sysobjects.xtype = ‘U’
and sysobjects.name not in (‘dtproperties’)

Companies in the US usually hold Christmas parties in December. I don’t know about other western countries, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have similar customs. Normally, one should dress formally in these parties. For man, that means suit, tie, dress shoes, and such.

I didn’t know that when I started working in the US in 1997. And my better half was in Sweden then, so she was not available to make sure I didn’t show up as a slob, which was exactly what I did. I presented myself with a casual shirt, old jeans, and an old pair of tennis shoes, after my coat was handed to the valet. The shirt had vertical red and white stripes all over it. It was not buttoned all the way up, so people could see my Hanes shirt underneath. I may also rolled up my sleeves, just like Mr. Bush tends to do in photo-ops with the American people, to project a rugged and strong image.

Needless to say, I was the only one dressed like that during the party. But that was not the only awkward moment. Again, normally in these parties, alcoholic drinks are provided. I didn’t know what most drinks were. (To this day, I still have trouble telling the difference and the content of various drinks.) I also had trouble pronouncing them. So to avoid trouble, I just said to the bartender: “a Bud Light please”, as if I were a pro. In reality, I would like to know what they were and try some different kinds so I know what I would like in the future. And I don’t like the tepid and yucky taste of Budweiser or Miller. But I was too cool and smooth to admit that.

Fortunately, that party was for employees in the Chicago office, so not too many people showed up. But that experience definitely left a strong impression on me.

PS. PR, I have not forgotten your tagging request. I will post a reply in the next few days.