4 Roles

I got this from the lines in a Chinese TV drama.

Your whole life is like a movie, and you'll have to play the 4 roles very well:

- You, yourself

- Child

- Wife / Husband

- Parent

Everyone is Happy But Me Syndrome

1.) "good enough" at work

2.) "there enough" at home

3.) feel unhappy, waiting for the chance to fulfill personal dreams when there is no work or family burden

4.) feel confused, having no idea what personal dreams to realize

5) still feel unhappy and confused

I was reading about this last night...so it's not only me.

Piano Movers

Usually, it costs $4-$10 per stair and $10 per turn to move the piano upstairs. After seeing the piano movers do their job today, the price they ask for is really not high at all. It was amazing how they did it: 2 men with minimum tools, 1 dragging with straps while 1 pushing with shoulder, they examined the venue and developed a real time strategy to push and turn, and sometimes they need to swop positions while the other is holding the piano. I strongly regret that I did not make a video of it. My heart was beating very fast, just as watching a thriller. I put my hands over my mouth while watching every single move they make. After the job is done, they were sweating like crazy, and buried their heads in their shoulders on the stairs, resting without saying a word, and then "Are you still alive?" came out. I offered some cold beverages in the end, and they were madly happy.

The piano is more than 600 lbs. Of course, it shouldn't be a 2-man job. Their supervisor did not read the paper work carefully and he didn't know that they need to move the piano upstairs. The 2 men did not want to reschedule because that'll be next week, because they wanted me to have my piano. How nice!

It is not easy to be a mover, I suppose. They told me that they moved 21 upright pianos yesterday, 5 grand and 3 upright today and more to go. The man who delivered our furniture can easily lift the heavy packages, and our arm hurts when we need to little some parts in the package while assembling it.

Anyways, I like the little happiness that you can get from other people, and bring them some happiness at the same time.

Retro

I am reading some chapters of the book "Who Says Elephant Can't Dance?". Interestingly, in part of the old IBM culture, "what we could make" was the starting point for them, not "what customers need". That's how Apple does things now, while all the other technology companies focus on marketing survey, gathering requirement from the customers and building products that the market needs that can also make them money.

It's like the fashion industry. Something is "in" for a while, and then it comes back after a few years...

Piano

Piano is an expensive hobby. The instrument itself, the tuning every 6 months, not to mention the private classes. I can't give it up, though. I don't know why I have such a long-lasting passion for piano playing, but I just do.

Looking for a second-hand piano is just like shopping for a second-hand vehicle. You don't know whether you should buy KAWAI or YAMAHA, as you don't know how to choose between TOYOTA and HONDA. You go to different dealers, and you go to individual sellers that you found on Craigslist. You don't know who you can trust, and you also don't have concrete knowledge on all the little parts that make the complicated machine. People try to mask prices by giving you perks (delivery, piano bench, tuning, warranty etc.), and they tell you all the fancy stories to convince you that the stuff they sell is the best and everyone else is lying to you.

The best way to cope with this is to do cross-reference. The industry is pretty small in the bay area, and everybody knows everybody. I start to learn so much by talking to and visiting different dealers and different individual sellers. I'm surprised that there are a lot of people who actually store piano in their rooms or garage at home and they can sell 30 pianos within 2 weeks. They buy second-hand pianos from Japan every 3 months. Delivery charge is also amazing, as you're also charged the the steps of stairs and the turn you have to make.