Good and Evil

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Human beings are not born Good, nor Evil, but both Good and Evil.

Doctrines can not make a good man better, nor can it turn an evil man good.

Doctrines are created for survival needs of human groups, so a plain truth for most people can be a total fault for a few, a noble creed for one group of people can be a devilish cult to another.

Feel "English" again.

After writing in Chinese for a while, I feel "English" again. My English writing has to be very simple due to two reasons: 1, my vocabulary is very limited; 2, this shortage of vocabulary actually forces me to simplify whatever I have to say. So, it is like using limited tools working on some bigger project... not a bad thing I guess

Passion and reason

Passion without reason is chaotic and shallow, reason without passion is dry and boring.

Aphorism by a "bitch"

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"... the difference is: I go after men because I want them, you go after them because you need them.... face it, you are weak!"
---by Edie, Desperate Housewives, season 5, episode 12.

After watching Desperate Housewives, the character that really made me thinking is Edie Britt, a "bitch", "Whore", and a philosopher. I even found this web page call Edie Britt Quotes

The most unforgetable was her narration after her death, which I have posted previously.

Sasha is back!

Sasha Cohen, after 4 years' "break", coming back to competition. Here is the most anticipated short program practice today at Spokane where she will compete tomorrow night (she looks amazing! i already got heart attack 5 minutes ago when she fell...):



Sasha now is 25 and aims to Olympics this year (next month). When she just came out she was 16 and she was the only one who was considered possibly beat Michelle Kwan. She didn't, technique wise (or jump wise), but by my point she did. Her talent to interpret music is like never seen before. Now, every single Sasha fan include me is nervous, and of course, excited!

Edie's final words --- from "desperate housewives"

"That's how Wisteria Lane became to be my final resting place:
My ashes was spread on grass I had once walked on; beneath trees that once gave me shade; on top of roses I once admired; and beside the fences I once gossiped over. After my friends finished saying goodbye, a wind came along, took what was left of me into the air. As I looked down on the world, I began to let it go of it, I let it go over white fences, cars and drive ways, , coffee cups and vacuum cleaners. I let it go over all those things which seemed so ordinary, but when you put them together they make up a life, a life that really was one of a kind. I tell you something, it is not hard to die when you know you have lived.
and I did. oh, how I lived! "

From "Desperate Housewives" season 5 episode 19.

History of the world part 1: Last supper

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by Mel Brooks:

"History of the world part 1: 10 Commandments"

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by Mel Brooks. hilarious:

Is psychology a science?

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Here is an article questioning psychology's scientific value.
Is psychology a science?

It proves the difficulty on studying human being, also it supports my doubt on some psychological ideas. However, I believe scientists (psychologists) would not be discouraged by this difficulty. They will carry on. Of course.

My doomed 2009 -- A lesson was learned

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In 2009, I met the toughest challenge in my life: jobless paired with terrible health condition. While I poorly "conquered" the first one during the first half of the year, the later one remains problematic.

CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) is really a monster. It doesn't kill you like some cancers, but it makes you to be only half of yourself, or even less than half. You may suffer symptoms of heart diseases, or of diabetes, or of many other diseases but as matter of fact, you have none of those diseases. The causes for CFS are still unknown, or too complicated to be detected. For sufferers, this means there is no cure for you. Or, as many doctors claimed, "you are fine".
The worst part of CFS is that it is the most misunderstood thus the most commonly misdiagnosed and mistreated illness ever. Usually it starts with normal tiredness, gradually gets severe until it's too late. During the course, patients inevitably and frequently feel inadequate, which is exactly how people with depression would feel. Thus CFS are often diagnosed as depression and given anti-depressants. However there is no study shows the effectiveness of these treatments. On the contrary, there were plenty cases showed the opposite (A young lady Sophia Mirza was one of the victims who DIED under mental treatments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mZMpvtD3rg). To clear this confusion, people (esp. doctors ) should know that it is chronic physical illness cause depression, not the other way around. However I don't mean that depression doesn't cause ANY physical problems at all, it only means that it is not most CFS sufferers' cases.

As a longterm sufferer, I personally diagnose my CFS as "energy overdrawn". By Chinese medicine, our energy is like a bank: we make withdraw everyday also we make deposit everyday. When we make withdraw but not make deposit, we bring ourselves troubles.
How do we make deposit for our energy? Answer is: Foods, sleep and exercises. These 3 things are the most important "deposit" we make for our energy bank. They together make a concept called: "positive life style". If we keep these things on going everyday, we should have no problems at all.
So my personal conclusion on the cause of CFS is " bad lifestyle", which mean failed on these 3 things. For CFS patients (not real depression sufferers), making effort on changing your physical life style would do much better job on recovering than focusing on what's wrong with your mind (like doctors said).

As a person who never cared about my physical being, this is the biggest lesson I learn in very hard way during my struggling in 2009. I had to shift my whole interest from "spirit" to "physical matters", such as cooking, sleep, exercises, etc. (the first one --- cooking --- is very hard for me to do because my stomach doesn't like American food so I have to work very hard to please such a patriotic organ!)

Of course, there is one thing I did not mention on my good life style menu: good spirit. I used to think this one is the most important thing and it is above all physical issues, but after physically problematic for so long, I had to doubt my former belief. All I can tell now, is that we must take care of every aspect of ourselves: body and mind. Being balanced is the key.

May I have a blessed 2010! And you too!


01/01/2010

Geography of a southern redneck

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A cable guy originally from Romania told me this true story: one day he came to a single house in the woods of North Carolina to do his job. The owner of the house was a guy about 30s. This guy lived alone there with dozens of dogs and cats. He noticed the cable guy's accent and politely asked him where he came from.
"Romania." The cable guy answered.
"Oh? How long does it take to drive there?"
"Eh? ... Oh, Romania is a country in Europe"
"Oh? I thought Europe is in Poland."

Is compassion really a human nature?

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My experience starts telling me that people usually would turn away from you if they heard that you were sick, especially if you are chronically ill. It seems that people either don't really know how to act in such a situation or, they simply don't believe you are sick (unless you stay in hospital).

I cannot tell how many time when I mentioned that I wasn't feeling well to some of my "friends" they just shrugged me off by saying "you look fine", or "you sound fine". I knew clearly what they really said was "don't even try to draw my attention by saying that you are sick", or, "you just don't know yourself". I also noticed that quite a few times people (or friends) just ignored my emails when I mentioned I was not in good shape.
By the way let me just clarify here that I was not the type of person who like to whiny over nothing.

So as time goes by friendships are jeopardized. As matter of fact I had to drop a few friends (which was not easy to me), because I simply cannot imagine I would do the same things like what they did to me. I can't even recall a single time of turning away from a friend when she/he needed me.
Am I abnormal here? Or, am I just too good to be a human being?

Does knowledge have limitation?

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I think it does. If we admit that our human being has limitation, so does our reason and our knowledge. Thus I believe that being skeptical is the right attitude to have for a real scientist or a rational human being.

However, this does not mean that we should go for superstition. It only means that while we acknowledge our limitation, we would still respect our reason as the most reliable pathway to reach the truth.

Dexter

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I would recommand this show to whoever enjoy mystery, crime and suspense movies. I knew this show from an online friend. Now I am totally hooked. It is absolutely addictive. If you really want to have a good time, start watching it from season one.

Mel Brooks, a genius filmmaker

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After having great fun with "High Anxiety", I started looking for Mel Brooks' films. "History of the world: part 1" just proved my impression of him, he really is a genius filmmaker! He is not only one of greatest filmmakers, but also a great thinker. He put some very serious subjects into comedies and made your laugh and think at the same time.

Watch these clips and see if you would laugh:
Last supper
10 Commandements

"Dressed to kill", a "must watch" suspense movie

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Just watched "Dressed to kill". Totally NOT disappointed! It is one of the best suspense movies ever made. Erotic, fun, kinky, suspense and scary, it is a Hitchcock like film but not any less than Psycho. The story line was carefully crafted and full of surprises until the end. Not only just fun and scary but also it shows a complex distortion of human mind. Absolutely an unforgetable piece!
Too bad we don't see many this type of movies anymore.


The openning soundtrack was amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQZ2NYqSovA&NR=1

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Ardipithecus ramidus --- new evidence of evolution

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2 hours documentary last night at discovery channel "discovery ardi" told us one thing: "we evolved".
Good news: we did not evolve FROM chimpanzee;
"Bad news": we and chimpanzee are still "siblings" --- both evolved from the same ancestor :-(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyfcnW5K9Xc&feature=related

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Loneliness

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For majority of people, loneliness is the most fearful thing that needs to be avoided by any means; for some people, loneliness can be an adornment for their ego --- it gives special touches on their personlity so their existance becomes more visible; for very few people, loneliness is a welcome challenge --- a challenge we must take in order to reach the ultimate peace.

Was America founded on Christianity?

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Many people believe that this country was based on Christianity, but by reading history I know at least something called: Separation of church and state. What's more, I found this from the movie "Religulous":

Thomas Jefferson: "Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man."

Benjamin Franlin: "Lighthouses are more useful than churches. "

John Adams: "This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it! "

Is this all about the perspective?
However, it is true to say that American people live in a Christian community. And I do believe that's what makes this country's ideology relatively behind even though the economic, scientific and social system are absolutely advanced.

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"Tolerance"

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When people are unable to tell right from wrong by their own judgement, they are easily puzzled and distressed. Thus "brotherhood" of all --- the "tolerance" literally for everything becomes the best sulotion.

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