Kalama Sutta

Saw a posting on EY's blog on this. Just remembered that I came across something similar and saved it on my computer a while back. This is the version I came across.

Do not believe in anything (simply) because you have heard it.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumoured by many.
Do not believe in anything (simply) because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with your reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.

Buddha Angettara Nikaya
Vol. I, 188-193 P.T.S. Ed

Happy Birthdays!!!

I am a lazy person. This is a statement and not a question. Since you guys knew that very very well already, I am going to take a 'detour' with my birthday wishes then. Here they are:

April 12
Happy Birthday KY!
Now that you are no longer 21, how's that feel? I bet its not that big deal anymore. :) Did you get your dad to pay off you loan?? hahaha..... good luck with that!

April 13
Happy Birthday Sally!
By the way, where are you now? I am pretty sure that you are unaware of the existence of this blog. But it doesn't matter, I just wanted to wish you all the best in whatever you are doing now. The courage you mustered to drop everything on hand and to pursue your dream really impressed me. Never thought of you as one of those people when we were back in high school. Happy birthday to you!

April 14
Happy Birthday Helen!
Hope that everything is moving well for you.

April 16
Happy Birthday JJ!
Where's my oil painting?? Is it still in your mind? hehehe......

April 17
Happy Birthday LP!
I don't like to gossip, but I think I will call up CNN and Fox News to spread the word that you got a new house in where-is-that-again? Joking.... (:

What a week.........

心情雜記

今天早起, 原本想到實驗室一趟, 把一些未完成的文件弄好, 星期二就可以交貨了. 起身後往窗外一望, 車子還是被四吋厚的雪覆蓋着. 看著這一情景, 想到我必須要除去車子上的雪, 我就提不起勁出門了. 昨天大清早下了一場雪, 整天的氣溫停留在零度C 左右, 所以到了今天雪都還沒溶化. 看了今天的氣象預測, 氣溫應該會升到七度左右, 希望明天早上車上的雪就會溶完了. 我喜歡雪, 喜歡下着雪的時候到外面走走. 可是當我已經把所有冬天的衣服收起來了才下雪, 我就很懶得出去了.

因為天氣冷, 地上還累積着雪, 這整個週末我總覺得懶懶的, 提不起勁來做些我該做的事. 昨天早上原本想到 Driving Range 一趟, 可是因為下雪, 就打消念頭了; 又想到書店逛一逛, 可是想到要鏟雪, 我又懶了. 最後我就待在家里, 看了幾齣戲: 霸王別姬, Sabrina(1995), Full Monty 和 Casino Royale. 現在明白了, 原來看戲看多了, 也是會累的, 尤其是沒有間斷的看.

今天早上決定了不去實驗室後, 就上網閒逛, 左看右看的, 想著既然沒事做, 不如就到自己的部落格塗鴉塗鴉. 最近, 我發現到我的部落格記載的東西, 大部分都是身邊所發生的事情, 很少文章是和自己的心情有關. 曾經有人告訴我, 我的部落格很沒有 "個人的味道", 冰冷冷的, 感覺不到我的個人情緒和心情, 看到的只是我身邊所發生的事情. 所以我今天就決定要寫一寫我的心情, 那就是, 我現在很無聊, 同時也在享受著無聊所帶來的樂趣.

Happy Birthday L.B., Ph.D., UE

Today's LB birthday. We decided to celebrate his birthday yesterday, since that's the day when everyone in the LSS group is here. We got him a cake and a homemade T-shirt (sounded like food -- homemade). I went to Market Street on Wednesday evening to get a chocolate cake. I requested the employee to write on the cake "Happy Birthday L.A.B., Ph.D., UE" in pink. The lady showed a quizzical look when she saw the word UE. So I told her that stands for Umemployed. She was laughing really hard, and I was thinking, "Hey, don't laugh too hard when you are writing, you could mess up the cake." After she was done with the writing, she told her colleague the UE thing, and I can see that her colleague was laughing too. Oh well, LB was the one who came up with the UE acronym.

This is a snapshot of what we had on the T-shirt for him.

It was quite an adventure in getting his gift ready, and hilarous too. I went to the SP Mall on Wednesday to check out the little booth that (used to) provides T-shirt printing services, and found out that they were out of business. I checked the yellow pages for T-shirt printing companies, visited their websites and found out that most of those websites were just a one-page website, i.e. just the main page with their phone, fax number and address. Then I called a number of companies and shops on Thursday morning. They were either too expensive for us, or they plainly (and politely) told me that they don't do screen printing for just one unit. So we resolved to buy some Print 'n Press - Iron On Transfer Paper and DIY on Thursday afternoon.

AG was suggesting a pink shirt, NW was for baby blue, SC was suggesting a purple, PA was for grey. We got an ash grey, cause PA was the one getting the shirt. PA went to HobbyLobby and got the T-shirt and transfer paper, then went home to get her iron. PA and AG will work on the T-shirt. LB had to teach a class from 12:30 ~ 1:50 p.m. After his class, NW went out for lunch with him and J. We told NW to keep him there at the restaurant until we call her. Meanwhile, I went over to SUB to get a birthday card.

When I got back from the SUB, PA and AG were in a 'crisis'. They were ready to iron on, then they figured out that they need to mirror the words, or else it will not show up right. They were trying to figure out how to mirror the words and they were having a hard time getting it right. With a little help here and there, we figured it out. We ironed the correct one on the back of the shirt. Then we thought, since we already printed the other one incorrectly, we might as well just ironed it on the front. And so we did it, right here in our office.

The whole process was hilarious, with Dr JLS sitting there on one of the student's desk, watching the whole 'show' and timing for us when we did the ironing. We were in a hurry to get it done, we were concerned that NW might not be able to retain LB in the restaurant long enough, we were eager to see the result. But, after all, we all had fun, lots of them.

Good thing that LB liked it, well, at least he showed that he liked it. Else, I would have smacked him. HAHA. Anyway, Happy Birthday Dr. LAB.

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."