Library

EY was telling me about 'the most boring job in the world' as defined by one of his professor, i.e. clock watcher (or something like that) in the Navy. I asked him, do you know why is this job important and he didn't know. So I suggested him to read a book by Dava Sobel, entitled "Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His time".

EY tried to look up the book in his school library online database and he couldn't find it. From my understanding, I believed that the school library should have it. So I searched his school library online database and I found it. To make life easier for him, I copy and paste the call number for that particular book on the messenger for him and told him "That's the call number for the book. "

To my great surprise, he asked me "What is that?" I was shocked. I told him "There should be more than 100,000 books in a university level library, not including the journals that library collect. If you ever need a book, remember to go through the 100,000 ++ books in alphabetical order to find the one you need." Finally, I figured I should give him a hand here if I want him to read more. So, I explained to him how does a library function, went through the floor map of his school library, helped him figure out the floor and section where that book is located, how does a library shelf the books and how does the call number work.

A 70++ year-old professor in Management, who was trained as a Mechanical Engineer in his bachelor degree, went back to his alma mater for 50 years reunion recently. He told us, one of his fellow ME classmate bragged that he had never set foot in the university library all through his undergraduate study. Now I could see that how can this be possible.

清明

<清明> 杜牧
清明時節雨紛紛, 路上行人欲斷魂.
借問酒家何處有? 牧童遙指杏花村.

這是小學時念過的詩句. 昨天晚上媽打電話來, 說她和爸剛從彰崙離開, 現在正在 Padang Sera 清明. 聽了後, 我才想起現在正是清明時節. 好快哦, 才剛過完農曆年不久, 現在已經是清明了. 再來就是端午,中元, 中秋, 重陽, 冬至, 然後又是一年了.

小時候總覺得時間過得真慢, 要等好久好久, 好不容易才盼到這一些節日的到來. 現在卻總覺得時間過得太快了, 這些節日來也匆匆, 去也匆匆, 沒有什麼值得回味似的. 或許是因為身在它鄉為異客, 身邊的人都不知道這些節日, 更別說慶祝了. 因為沒有慶祝, 所以就沒什麼好回味的吧.

Racist Crow

Its spring. Its the season where every living thing except human seems to get a little weird. Human might too, just that human are good at concealing, which sometimes closely resemble something called "hypocrisy" and that's why other human didn't notice the weirdness. Anyway, by weird, I mean the 'rites and rituals' performed the living things before copulating.

Last evening, after helping out with the Beer Game for a class, NW and I came back to our office and was getting ready to leave. Dr M came by to drop off something for me. Then, outside the glass panel, I saw a huge flock of black birds (because its black; I don't know the specie) swarming toward a tree as if they were attacking their enemy, rest on the tree for a while, then flew away in a flock and then repeat the 'ritual', over and over. Its amazing to watch that.

Seeing the flock of birds swarming, I told NW: "Watch out! They are coming for you." NW replied: "I know! I had been watching closely for that." Dr M was there and he was lost. So I had to tell him that NW was attacked by several crows in several occasions and that led her to believe that crows are racist. (Note: NW is African American) Dr M cracked up, really badly. If you happened to be in the second floor of IE building, you could hear him laughing all way down the hallway.

NW's "Racist Crow Theory" and "Crow Conspiracy Theory" were not new to us. NW told us her incidents with the crows when it first happened and we had been laughing at the two 'theories' for a while now. Last summer, NW was attacked by the crow while walking from the parking lot to the office. It happened almost on a daily basis, for about three weeks. NW took it personally, thinking that the crow only attacked her. I had the same experience too, only I wouldn't call it an attack and its definitely not personal to me. The crow just flew by really close to your head when you walked by.

After NW told us her two "theories", these are the reactions: LB told NW: "You sure its crow? I think those that attacked you were doves! OR.... they thought that they were doves."; Dr M asked NW: "What is the color of the crows?"; JS told NW: "Yeah, I heard of black-on-black violence before. Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

NW told us she even thought of parking somewhere else, maybe by the baseball stadium or something to avoid the crows. Then LB told her, "Watch out, the jackrabbit might attack you."

Happy Chinese New Year!

Don't have much to write for this occasion, except to wish all my friends Happy CNY and have a prosperous year. Its been quite some time since I last celebrated this special day with my family. In fact, this is my seventh CNY away from home. Hmm.... seven years..... seven years.... well, it wasn't that itchy.... haha.... shouldn't be saying that, it's so wrong. In case you were lost, the movie "Seven Year Itch" came across my mind when I thought of seven years.... hehe... maybe I should check out the movie.

新年快樂! 恭喜發財!
我在這裡祝賀我所有朋友 (無論您們知不知道我的部落格的存在) 暨所有路人, 在新的一年里, 心想事成, 身心愉快, 萬事如意, 年年有余, 月月有金魚, 天天有龍蝦, 時時有螃蟹, 分分有鮑魚, 秒秒有....鯊魚.....

又來了。。。

今天早上, 我和另外兩個朋友約好, 一齊參加一年一度本地獅子會所主辦的 Pancake Festival. 原本約好只有我們三個, 可是當我抵達約好的地方時, 其中一個朋友, ㄋ 還沒到, 一個則帶了另外一個朋友, 不速之客. 我知道這麼說很不禮貌, 可是那 "第四者" 是之前提過的, 年逾古希的退休教授; 而且我們昨天說好了, 我們三個女人一齊去的.

在整個慶典中, 我們静靜地吃着早點, 雖然還不至於食不知味, 但也接近了. ㄋ和我不知道該說什麼才好. 雖然我們倆都認識那老教授, 可是因為年齡的差距和我們都在不同的社交圈子活動, 我們共同的話題真的很有限. 我不想談些老教授不懂得話題而很明顯的把他拒于門外, 我們和老教授共同的話題已經在我們到會場後的十五分鐘里聊完了. 更何況老教授不是我邀請來的, 找話題和關照他的感受也就不是我的責任了. 這些都還不怎麼困擾我, 雖然沒話題可談, 我還是很開心地觀察着四周圍的人群. 幾乎整個拉拔客的居民出席這個慶典, 很有看頭.

真正困擾我的是我朋友和那老教授之間的關係. 她真的對他有意思嗎? 如果不是, 那為什麼還讓他跟著我們一齊到那慶典? 另一個 "新" 的困擾是那老教授在慶典上的態度. 之前只是在 TM 里和老教授有交集, 所以並沒有機會深入觀察他的態度和為人. 從今天早上我個人的觀察, 我發現他有種族歧視的傾向, 而且他的禮貌和他對人的態度也有點問題. 老教授給我的整體印象是美國人所謂的 "紅頸項". 雖然他受過高深教育, 還是一位榮譽退休教授, 但這並不表示他是個君子. 我朋友這麼做就好比在玩火, 在我發現到老教授並不是君子後, 我比之前更擔心了. 我擔心如果她把老傢伙惹火了, 老傢伙會對她不利.

心有余而力不足. 我還能怎麼樣呢?

"Here's looking at you, kid"

"Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'"
"Here's looking at you, kid."
"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
"We'll always have Paris."
"Round up the usual suspects."
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Some of you might know pretty well from the quotes, I watched Casablanca, again, for the n-th times. I watched it with my IE buddies this time, on a 1980's version of 42-in.-flat-screen TV in our office. For reasons unknown to me, I love this movie. I don't know why and I don't want to know why either, but I am going to buy the DVD, the special edition one.

Old, But Definitely Not Frail

It doesn't matter if you like him, agree with him or not, but he is a man with vision, the man who truly understands the meaning of 'change/impermanence' and fully utilizes the advances in technology in order to reach the younger generation. There is definitely something that MY gov. should learn from: utilize (not regulate) the Internet.

Tun Dr. M. speaks out on war on youtube.