Oct 212013
 
WongTaiSinTemple500

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In the autumn brook are reeds full of morning dew.
Bathed in moonlight, courtyard steps are crystal clear.
Tinkling horse-bells echo in refreshing breeze;
Loudly follows the repeating sound of morning bell.

[ poem 17 ]

The scholar’s straightforward advice offended the emperor.
Exiled to the south, he was forever a traveller.
His page was tired and his horse refused to go,
At the gate they were blocked by merciless snow.

[ poem 43 ]

It happens one day when two great debaters meet,
But who can say which one has gained the lead.
For surely, the one’s points are sound and strong,
Yet, the other’s argument is by no means wrong.

[ poem 87 ]

P.S.: This temple is a place that people come to pray and make wishes. It is famous in HK for that it claims to make every wish come true upon request.

 Posted by at 7:28 pm
Oct 202013
 

This is an amazing talk given by “Salman Khan” the creator of the “Khan Academy“. Apparently, they have about one million video watching in a month.

It can be imagined how technology (combined with new ideas/methods to apply it in a proper manner) will change all aspect of our life, in particular our “social life”.

 Posted by at 7:52 pm
Oct 082013
 

This is my new friend at the office! First day, when I came here, it was on my desk near the window (I became very happy when I saw it) but suddenly it disappeared until I found it on the desk of one of students. He had also a couple of some other beautiful flowers on his desk. When I started talking to him, I realized that he would prefer to put this flower near the window because it needs a lot of sunlight…

So! Gladly it’s been back on my desk 🙂

2013-10-07-17.48-edited-500

 Posted by at 11:57 am
Jun 272013
 

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.

[ The Usual Suspects (1995) ]

 Posted by at 10:43 pm
Jan 182013
 

Where you go I go
What you see I see
I know I’d never be me
Without the security

Of your loving arms
Keeping me from harm
Put your hand in my hand
And we’ll stand

Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together

 Posted by at 7:36 am
Jan 052013
 

Click on the image to view it larger.

I took this shot of Hong Kong from the Victoria Peak in a foggy evening when we had a light rain. I was lucky enough that before the sunset, the fog started to disappear and a clear view of the city came out.

 Posted by at 7:44 am
Dec 042012
 

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

[ Yann Martel, Life of Pi ]

It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.

[ Yann Martel, Life of Pi ]

It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.

[ Yann Martel, Life of Pi ]

P.S.: I was looking to find some quotes which I remembered from the movie but I couldn’t find the one I was looking for. Instead, I found these quotes from the novel which I think are interesting too! See also these paragraphs about fear from the novel.

 Posted by at 3:21 pm
Dec 042012
 

I was looking for some quotes from the movie “Life of Pi” but instead, I found these great paragraphs from the original novel about the fear!

The emphases are from me.

I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy. Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out. But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier. Doubt does away with it with little trouble. You become anxious. Reason comes to do battle for you. You are reassured. Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapons technology. But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low. You feel yourself weakening, wavering. Your anxiety becomes dread.

Fear next turns fully to your body, which is already aware that something terribly wrong is going on. Already your lungs have flown away like a bird and your guts have slithered away like a snake. Now your tongue drops dead like an opossum, while your jaw begins to gallop on the spot. Your ears go deaf. Your muscles begin to shiver as if they had malaria and your knees to shake as though they were dancing. Your heart strains too hard, while your sphincter relaxes too much. And so with the rest of your body. Every part of you, in the manner most suited to it, falls apart. Only your eyes work well. They always pay proper attention to fear.

Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you’ve defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you.

The matter is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. So you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.

 Posted by at 10:30 am
Nov 232012
 

The Origins of Pleasure is a very interesting talk on TED  by the psychologist Paul Bloom who talks about how our beliefs about the history of an object change how we experience it, not simply as an illusion, but as a deep feature of what pleasure (and pain) is.

It is very likely that we have some intuition about the the above idea, but he tries to support it with some experimental evidences.

 Posted by at 9:04 am