13歲的Andrew上8年級。像很多的父母一樣,
我們從小就為他設計了一條金光大道。在美國,
華人從政不現實,
學醫太多。從Tiger Woods
身上得到啟示,
美國是一個崇拜英雄的國家,
只要你在體育上有所建樹,
他們就對你頂禮膜拜。
(13-Year-Old
Andrew goes to 8th Grade. Like many parents, we have designed a golden life
path for him. In US, very few Chinese are interested in politics. Too many
people study medical schools. Inspired from Tiger woods, U.S. is a national
that worships heroes. As long as you accomplish something in sports, they pay
homage to you.)
美國最有名的是三大球:
籃球, 橄欖球,和棒球。籃球嗎,
華人身高不佔優勢,
身體素質也不如黑人。13億人才出了個姚明,大治和巴特爾。橄欖球嗎,
華人更是不能跟黑人撞,
整個NFL里,
亞裔都沒幾個。達拉斯牛仔隊
(Cowboys) 前些年有一個越裔的,
叫Dat Nguyen, 紅過一陣,
現也傷病退休了。棒球嗎,
雖然沒有籃球和橄欖球的衝撞性,
但對身體力度和強度的要求也是很高。算來算去,
華人能和黑人,白人站在同一起跑線上的,
就數高爾夫球了。
那時我們的房子正好在德州Coppell
的Riverchase高爾夫球場旁邊,
我們就給小Andrew請了個老師,一星期學兩次。剛開始時,
他還很感興趣。6,7
月的德克薩斯的熱浪下也照樣練。
(The
most popular sports in US are basketball, football, and baseball. But Chinese
people don』t fit well in these three sports. If a Chinese wants to be good at a
sport, you have to select golf. At that time, we live in a house next to the Riverchase
Golf Course in Coppell. We hired a teacher to teach him. Andrew showed a strong
interested in playing golf at the beginning. He kept practicing almost every
day, even during hot Texas summer.)
那幾年的Byron
Nelson Golf Tournament,每年都要去,
主要是去看Tiger
Woods。但不到兩年,
小子就打退堂鼓了。後來,我硬是又讓他穿上了棒球制服。但打完一個賽季,
就再也不幹了。
(In those years, I always took Andrew to the Byron Nelson
Golf Tournament. The main purpose was to see Tiger Woods. After two years,
Andrew started to lose interest in golf. I encouraged him to try out baseball
with his brother. But he gave up after one season.)
他老爸我還是不甘心,
我本人就是一個體育愛好者,尤其是籃球打得比較好。那時每星期六開車到位於Arlington的UTA大學打籃球,每次都帶上小Andrew。他實際上可以說是在籃球場邊上長大的。幾次拖他試試籃球,他就是不感興趣,
投了幾次球,就喊著要走。幾番下來,面對事實,不得不低下頭,徹底死了體育明星這顆心。
(But
I didn't want to give it up. I am a sport enthusiast myself and especially play
well in basketball. Every Saturday, I always took Andrew with me to play
basketball at UTA. I can say that Andrew grows up in the basketball sidelines.
But somehow he didn't show any interest in basketball. At the end, I have to
face the facts and totally forgot the dream of having a son as a sport star.)
Andrew從小動手能力就強,三歲時就把家裡的櫃門拆下,
桿錐是他最喜歡的玩具.
(Andrew is very handy. When he was little, his favorite tool
was a screw driver. He de-assembled the cabinets in the kitchen several times
when he was 3.)
Andrew
每看到一樣新的東西,都喜歡琢磨,總想研究出個為什麼,小到房間的門鎖,大到車庫的遙控。家裡每買一件電器,都是讓Andrew去安裝。一次在朋友家聚會,幾個小朋友把一房反鎖上,不知在里幹什麼,把女主人急得團團轉。Andrew知道后,馬上用一個回形針扭了幾下,一下就把門打開了。還有一次鄰居家的熱水器火滅了,大冷天沒了熱水可咋辦。我過去研究了半天,火就是打不著。沒辦法,只好請大師Andrew出馬。Andrew仔細看了看說明書,再試了試,
火就著了,一家人在旁邊喝彩歡呼。
(When seeing something new, Andrew always tries to figure it
out how it』s working, from a lock to the remote control of garage door. When we
bought electronic staffs, like TV, or printer, Andrew will automatically put
everything together. One day, we attended a party at a friend』s house. A group
of kids locked themselves in a room. Their moms couldn』t open the lock and started
to worry about it. Andrew immediately asked for a paper clip. He twisted it a
little bit and put it into the lock. And the door was opened. On a winter morning,
our neighbor didn』t have any hot water. Both I and my neighbor worked on the
water heater for hours and the fire just couldn』t be turn on. So we have to ask
Master Andrew to try. He carefully looked at the manual and punched some
buttons and then the fire was turn on. The whole family was cheering for him.)
小Andrew最喜歡的玩具還是電腦。他喜歡電腦是從玩火車Thomas開始的。爸爸淘汰下來的一部Compaq
成了他心愛。
(When he went to elementary, Andrew』s favorite toy is
computer. An old Compaq computer became his favorite toy.)
到了11歲時, 一部Sony
Vaio 手提電腦已經滿足不了他的需要。他要自己組裝一部super
computer。他在newegg.com
看到一個很好的deal,
包括cpu, dpu, memory, hard
drive, case, fans, cables, and etc. 我就給他買了下來,也是算是Andrew11歲的生日禮物。
(By
the age of 11, a Sony Vaio laptop has failed to meet his needs. He wanted to assemble
a super computer. One day Andrew saw a good deal on computer components from www.newegg.com, including CPU, DPU, memory,
hard drive, case, fans, cables, and etc. I bought it as his 11-year-old
birthday gift.)
UPS把包裹送到后,小Andrew
就開始組裝,不到半天的功夫,一台super
computer就組裝成功,開始運轉了。還真是,video
rendering 效果真是很好。過了幾天,鄰居家小孩來玩這台super
computer,直喊過癮,回到家后吵著爸爸,要跟Andrew一樣的組裝一台。
(When UPS delivered the parcel, Andrew began assembly. For
less than half a day, Andrew successfully assembled a super computer. It』s a
really a super faster, especially in the video rendering. After a few days, our
neighbor kid came to play. He liked it so much that he asked his parent to give
him the same birthday gift.)
Andrew很有經商的意識,每天都要瀏覽那些post
good deals的網站,比如說
www.slickdeals.net,
www.edealinfo.com.
看到好的deals,他都要和爸爸分享。很好的deal,他就馬上購買,然後再到ebay上賺錢。一次他看到一個網站出售一種mini
藍牙keyboard,只有$10,
Andrew馬上買了2個,然後很快在ebay上以$50出手,一個純利$40.
(Andrew has a sense of doing business. He always browses
those websites that post good deals, such as www.slickdeals.net
and www.edealinfo.com. When he sees good
deals, Andrew always shares with me. For some good deals, he made purchases
immediately. One day, he saw a website to sell a mini Bluetooth keyboard for
only $10. Andrew immediately bought two, and then posted it on EBay for sale. He
sold one for $50 the second day.)
前一陣,Microsoft的搜索引擎bing.com大作廣告,推出高達20%的cash
back。一天,小Andrew告訴爸爸,hp.com有20%的bing.com
cash back。我馬上行動,買下一台HP新出爐的i7desktop,cash
back拿到$200。
(Microsoft』s search engine bing.com was running a big
promotion at that time and offered 20% cash back. One day, Andrew told me that
HP.com offer 20% cash back from bing.com. I acted immediately and bought a HP
desktop with Intel 7i CPU for $1000 before the $200 cash back.)
當然,小Andrew做生意並不是每次都成功。幾個月前,Wal-Mart
出售eMachine 的15『6「
Dual Core laptop,$299.00 +
tax。這是我們看到的Intel
Dual Core laptop 最低價。這個價錢是星期天開始生效,我和小Andrew半夜11:45跑到Plano的一家
Wal-Mart,把3台laptop全部買下。第二天,小Andrew就post到ebay。一星期後,以$360賣掉一台,去掉tax,郵寄費,ebay費,paypal費,純利只有$15。看到只掙到$15,小Andrew的情緒就不高了,剩下的2台也不管了。好在暑假回國了一趟,剩下的2台都帶回國去了。
(Of course, Andrew was not always successful. A few months
ago, Wal-Mart had eMachine 15』6 DualCore laptop for $299.00 + tax. This is the
lowest price we had ever seen for any Intel DualCore laptops. This deal started
on Sunday. Andrew and I went to a Wal-Mart store at 11:45 pm Saturday night and
bought all three laptop this store had. The next day, Andrew posted it to
EBay.com. One week later, he sold one for $360. Deducting tax, shipping, EBay fee,
PayPal fee, the net return was only $15. After seeing the small margin, Andrew
was not that motivated. For the rest two laptops, I had to bring to China and
gave them to my relatives.)
最讓Andrew心醉神迷的還是網站的建立和網名的收藏。不知從何時起,小Andrew就開始自學php,java
script,mysql,自己建起了網站。Andrew的第一個網站是
www.pyrohawk.com。
Andrew建這個網站是因為受到另一個網站的啟發。Andrew自己最喜歡的網站之一是
www.roblox.com。這是個面向青少年的遊戲網站,basic
feature是免費的,但是假如你想玩好的features,你就得交錢。這個網站2009年的收入是$2
million。Andrew
也想建一個類似的網站,他從www.godaddy.com
註冊了www.pyrohawk.com 域名,
又聯繫dreamhost.com
來host這個網站。他一度和網上認識的朋友商量這個項目,但最終由於種種原因而擱淺。
(The most enjoyable thing for Andrew is to build his website.
I don』t know since when Andrew learned PHP, Java script and MySQL by himself,
and started to build his website. Andrew』s first website is www.pyrohawk.com. One of his favorite
websites is www.roblox.com. This website
targets youths on online games. The basic feature is free, but you have to pay for
advanced features. This website』s revenue in 2009 is $2 million. Andrew planned
to build a similar website. He registered the www.pyrohawk.com
domain name from www.godaddy.com. He then
contacted www.dreamhost.com to host this
website. He even discussed this project with some online friends. But
eventually this project was not completed for various reasons.)
2010年5月,他在網上看到一個新的用於網上的graphic的技術,就開始建立他的第二個網站:www.likingspree.com。Andrew巧妙地應用這種技術,用到facebook的主頁。當你想從facebook
login時,你會看到一些很annoying的graphic,當你點擊button想去掉這些graphic時,你就會被帶到Andrew的www.likingspree.com.
在這個網站上,Andrew建立了廣告links,每1000的點擊會給Andrew帶來$0.25的收入。但沒過幾天,facebook
堵上了這個漏洞。Andrew就通過其他途徑來吸引顧客。
(In May 2010, inspired by a new technology for online
graphic, he began to build another website www.likingspree.com.
He ingeniously plugged this new technology to Facebook homepage. When Facebook
users try to login to their Facebook accounts, they may jump to Andrew』s www.likingspree.com. He had established
some advertising links and the rate is $0.25 for every 1000 clicks.)
這個網站剛開始的時候,traffic很高,一星期最高達到100萬。Andrew一天可收入$150-$190.
(The traffic on Andrew』s website was so high and it hit one
million per week. Andrew can receive $150 - $190 every single day.)
那時我們正好回國探親,Andrew問起他在中國的小姐姐一個月掙多少,沒想到小Andrew兩天的收入就當別人的一個月的工資。
那些天我們一家人都很hype,
為小Andrew的成績感到驕傲。這樣看來,Andrew以後上大學的費用我們不用操心了。
(We were so proud for little Andrew』s achievement. To be
honest, we were also hype at that time. One thing is for sure, if he could make
money with this rate, we don』t need to worry his college tuition.)
自從開學后,這個網站的traffic
大大下降,小Andrew的收入也大大減少。不知是不是facebook堵住了到他網站的連鎖,他也不願花太多功夫去debug。但整個暑假下來,小Andrew一共收入近3千美元,比他爸爸當年在紐約一暑假騎單車送外賣,掙得還要多。
(Unfortunately after the school started, the traffic greatly
came down dramatically. But little Andrew made almost $3000 for the whole summer.)
小Andrew下一個project是什麼?他正在忙著建他的下一個網站:www.spoofmsg.com.
假如你想了解小Andrew
,請上他的profile
網站:http://www.insanecookie.com/