June 18, 2013

Thinking About Boycott A Chinese Online Magazine

My recent article "Ten Thousand Full Score Tests Aren't Worth One Happy Childhood" (published on cnd.org - Chinese New Digest) faced overwhelmingly criticizes and personal attacks. The thread in discussion forum about my article titled as such: "Is this kind of grand idea a sign of paranoia?" I did not plan to get involved in discussion but somehow I got in, and the end was not quite unhappy. 260 comments, only less than 15% supported my view points, over half of them are judgement and personal attack, the rest of them (less than 1/3) are neutral opinions.
I don't might different opinions or criticism, but in a place that I was rejected by majority, I think it's better for me to leave. However, this Chinese online magazine so far is the best one I found outside of China, and they have excellent engine support publication and discussion forums. I participated this place since 2004. So it would be a hard decision to make. I already back up all my Chinese articles. Just need a little more time, to see if I still think it's a good idea.

June 13, 2013

Quotes From "Van Gogh: The Life"

"He (Vincent) carried his chair, a portfolio of paper, and a plank of wood. He worked so intensely --- holding the big carpenter's pencil in his fist like a knife --- that he needed the heavy plank to prevent tearing the paper. He planted himself in front of trees and shrubs, outside framers' cottages and barns, overlooking mills and meadows, along roadsides and churchyards. He sketched animals as they fed, and implements --- plows, harrows, wheelbarrows --- where they lay." (page 230)


Marsh With Water Lillies, 1881, pencil and ink 
(In his sketch, see left) "Vincent looked out across the same swamp vista and cast his eyes downward. Pushing the horizon almost to the top of his much larger sheet, he relegated the town to insignificance and fixed his gaze on the teeming water at his feet: a tangled world of reeds, flowers, lily pads, and leaves, each with its own slant or arc, its own shape and shade, its own cross-hatched reflection on the still surface of the sunlit bog. With a manic vehemence not taught in any exercise book, he filed the bottom of the sheet with clusters of dots, random dark sports, floating circles, and meandering lines in an effort to render the bottomless fecundity that he knew so well from the banks of the Grote Beek. He added a bird, a visitor from his childhood, swooping low over the water in search of the life squirming unmistakably beneath the pencil marks." (page 234-235)


June 5, 2013

Flying Dream Is Back!

English: Flying Herring Gull (Larus argentatus...
English: Flying Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) on the baltic sea (4) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I had flying dream last night, or this morning, be more specifically. I dreamt I was walking on Tobacco Trail (though it did look like that trail at all), alone, felt a little dangerous, so I thought I probably should fly up, so I did! I immediately took off and flew over woods and meadow, soon I was in sky! Very interestingly, even in dream, I was thinking: "hey, finally, I am having this dream again!"

I could not remember when was the last time I had flying dream, but I believe it was at least over 15 years ago. So this is something very specially to me. Not only I had this dream back, I found in my dream last night, I took off much easier than I did in my previous flying dreams, and flew much higher.

I should celebrate and mark this as the most important invent of my snake year!

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