Random Rave

Grateful Mindset

2011-11-26T20:22:00.000-08:00

It has been a great year. I am grateful for many things and many people. Let me just recount a few. I will start with something small.
I am thankful for a stranger whose car I bumped on highway 101. It was a sunny afternoon during the typical busy commute hour. The traffic was stop-and-go. The CD I was listening just ended, so I was fiddling around to find the next one. Somehow, the next disc was particularly difficult to fish out of its container and I have to turn and look at the thing. Oh, well, that is when I hear a thump. I just realized that I have hit someone in front of me and it is definitely my fault for no watching the road. “Great,” I said to myself, “now I have to face an angry driver and be late for picking up the kids.” I sat that for a moment before getting out the car. It turned out that there was not any serious damage because the cars were moving very slow. When the lady driver came out of the car, I asked whether she was hurt. She answered “no.” She walked to the back of her car and looked at her back bumper. I asked her whether she needed my insurance information, she grinned and said, “forget about it.” “Huh, she is not angry, and she does not even want my insurance information. This is a lot better than I was expecting.” I thought to myself, and then said, “Are you sure?” She said that she was sure. What can I say? I was relieved to hear that. I smiled and said to her, “Thanks. You are so kind.” She got back in her car and drove away. In a minute, my mode went from dread to relief; I could not express how happy I felt about the outcome that I did not even remember to ask for her name. As I was driving home, I couldn’t help myself but to repeat the words “Thank you.”
At my work place, this has been a tough year because the funding for a number of projects has run out. This is not unique to our research group, because the overall funding level has gone down. The situation is that we will be forced to fire people if the situation does not improve. The organization I am in has a rule based on years of service – the newest staff is to be let go first. I was personally involved in working with three of the newest members in our group. I was clearly concerned. However, my manager was a few steps ahead of me on this matter. He has talked to these guys already and they have made plans way before I realized. It turned out that all three of them got decent jobs in universities. I am very happy that they all have good jobs and more importantly, I am grateful for a boss who plans.
The struggle to get additional funding for our group has been particularly difficult this year. I am aware of very contentious meetings that my group lead has to attend, and insidious underhanded moves against some of my colleagues. I am grateful that he is taking care of those issues so that I can continue to have a job. Thanks, boss.

Orange Parking

2009-05-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

During a recent visit to Beijing, a friend complained about the numerous cars with special license plates driving like they own the road and exacerbating the already bad traffic problems. These cars are from numerous armed force headquarters and ministries of the central government. In China, they are issued special license plates to identify their special status. These organizations often view themselves as far above the city government, not to mention the local police departments who enforce the traffic laws. This was an occasion for me to brag about American where everyone follows the traffic laws. However that self-righteousness feeling did not last very long, I was soon reminded by an incident on my own commute to work.
I work for a place where parking spaces are in short supply. They issue three different parking permits that we have to display inside our wind shields. The three parking permits come in three distinct colors: green, blue and orange, with the orange permits exclusively reserved for the upper-level management. While driving, the parking placard is easy to spot from the front of the card, but not from the back.
On this fateful morning, I made a stupid mistake of passing a car that has stopped for a pedestrian – it was technically a legal move because the pedestrian has passed my side of the road. The street becomes one lane just a few step after that intersection and by moving first, I got in front of the car that has to stop longer than me. Apparently my move had seriously offended the driver in the other car. She immediately started tailing me very closely. This gave me a good opportunity to notice the orange parking permit. At the next stop sign a couple of blocks down the road, while I was stopped, she zoomed ahead. I thought to myself “Thank goodness. That was over.” Since I don’t remember seeing her in any offices directly above me, I was pretty sure that was the last I would see that boss lady. Guess I was wrong.
When I arrived at the gate of my workplace, this boss lady apparently had arrived long enough to instruct the security guard to give me some hassle. The security guard waved me to the side and started telling me that he had received complaints that I was driving erratically. Luckily, a few “sorry, sir” and “yes, sir” were all it needed to end that exchange. The whole thing took less than two minutes.
The incident itself is not a big deal. However, once in a while, I cannot help but to remind myself to slow down and look around at that intersection just in case that boss lady is right in front of me again.
The moral of the story: don’t try to gain a space or two by cutting in front of other cars, you will probably get into some sort of trouble and ended up taking more time. Especially not to pass those cars with some sort of authority prominently displayed, no matter how small, their egos need more protection than the bald eagles – just leave them alone.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

Freedom of Gratitude

2008-12-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving I should have a lot of great things to be thankful for. I said “should” because I have been distracted by too many details to feel the joy. That changed last Sunday when I saw the words “Freedom of Gratitude” projected overhead during the sermon. Yes, “having a sense of gratitude” frees me from those nitty-grittys that bother me, and reminding myself about what I have helps me with a more positive view of the surroundings. Last Thanksgiving, I wrote something about what I was thankful for at that time. This is a perfect time for me to write another one.
Let me start with the notable things in my family. I am very grateful that my family is in good health. Earlier today, I was on the phone with a colleague who was working at home. It turned out that he was at his parent’s house instead of his own house, because his parents are under the weather. At the same time, he was also baby-sitting his own kid who was interrupting him while we were on the phone. That definitely reminded me how lucky that I don’t have to any of that.
Both my wife and I have decent jobs. With the overall economic situation the way it is, many people are facing the tough situation of losing their jobs and their homes. We are very grateful to have both. I often complain about the commute, but a 40-minute commute to work is quite common around the area I live in. Compared with those facing much harder problems, this little commute problem is nothing.
It has been a banner for me at work. My nearly a decade’s work on a software package has been made public and started to help people from different part of the world. This has lead to some recognition for the software. I am very grateful for my boss who has worked hard to keep the work funded through some tough times. I am even more grateful to those creative people who find ingenious ways to use the software to make interesting applications.
It is about time for me to get going so I will stop here. The important thing to remember is “Be Thankful.” It costs nothing, but may do a lot of good.

Col 3:15 be ye thankful.

Mostly Asians

2008-10-31T23:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of days back, I heard a local news report about a rally in support of Prop. 8 in 2008 California general election. The announcer described the rally as organized by a number of local churches and attended by a few thousand people. For whatever reason, he added "mostly Asians" after a brief pause. I can not tell whether it was the tone of his voice or something else, it really annoyed me. Was it wrong for that mostly Asian crowd to take a stand against the four judges who overruled the voice of people by invalidating Proposition 22? Was it wrong for that crowd to voice their support for traditional marriages? Or are Asians supposed to hide in their homes to let the main stream media decide what they are supposed to think?

I was trying to dig up some explanations about this "mostly Asians" comment, then I noticed something else, a survey of Asian American reported by Mercury News on October 15, 2008. The headline was "Survey: Asian-Americans overwhelmingly against outlawing gay marriage". The article explained that homosexuality is no long an issue of fundamental morality among Asian Americans, but instead Asian Americans sympathize with the homosexuals because many different Asian groups were oppressed by the majority at one time or another. Apparently, the homosexuals have played their role of victim so well that a lot of people are convinced that they are oppressed.

The simply fact is that homosexuals are not oppressed by anyone. In some places around the world, homosexual behavior is considered so vile that the perpetrators are put to death. However, that is not the case here in California. In certain cities, one almost is required to be a homosexual to be elected into an office. Granted that there are certain very low barriers to discourage perversion, for example, to buy alcohol in California, one has to show proof of age, or if you spit on the street, a police officer can give you a ticket. These are for the basic protection of the people. Both drug addicts and homosexuals are identified with a bad behavior, however, the fundamental difference is that a drug addict typically realise that there is something wrong and want to correct the problem or at least contain it. On the other hand, the homosexual community has been imposing on everyone else the notion that their behavior is normal and respectable. This is where they are wrong. They are not victims, but aggressors -- plotting and scheming to get everyone brainwashed.

That "mostly Asian" crowd did not buy into the homosexual propaganda, I am very happy for that. I felt proud to be an Asian when I saw some Asians braving the wind and rain, holding signs of "yes on 8" at a number of intersections around town. It gives me hope that most Asians in California still care a whole lot about morals.

PS: here is an good moral argument for the existence of God.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

None of their business

2008-10-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

When I heard the news that California Teachers Association (CTA) donated more than a million dollars to oppose Proposition 8 [MSN news, LA Times], my first reaction was “Proposition 8 is none of their business.” What does a teacher’s union have anything to do with gay marriage? This really got me curious.

On CTA’s web site, they give the following reasons for their position:

“CTA believes that all people should be allowed equal protections under the law. California’s constitution should guarantee the same freedoms and rights to everyone – no one group should be singled out and have their rights taken away. Proposition 8 mandates one set of rules for gay and lesbian couples and another set of rules for everyone else. That’s not fair. California laws should treat everyone equally.”

Their arguments basically rests on “equal protection” of law, but this claim of absolute “equal protection” is not valid. There is a very strict limit on what California Constitution protects. Very simply, not every kind of activity deserves “equal protection.” Clearly, there is no “equal protection” for murder. Well, one might say that this is explicitly prohibited - you would be surprised to know that California Constitution mentions the word “murder” only once and it is not “thou shall not murder.” The point is that reasonable people would agree that murder does not receive “equal protection” from the law, which proves that only some acts are protected.

California has many different ethnic groups from around the world and many of these groups have practices that do not receive “equal protection.” For example, honor killing is practiced in some places as close as St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada [The Vancouver Sun, June 11, 2007], and Jonesboro, Georgia [The Atlanta Journal, July 11, 2008], should we provide them “equal protection?” We also have many residents coming from Africa where female circumcision is practiced, should female circumcision receive “equal protection?” There are plenty of people came to California after many years of running slave factories elsewhere around the world and would be happy pick up their old businesses, should we give their businesses “equal protection?” I would image most people would not grant “equal protection” to these activities.

Because there are many activities that are not under “equal protection,” CTA’s main argument for supporting gay marriage is not valid. What could be the real reason behind CTA’s position? I can only guess.

I have always had a positive view of teachers and have benefited from numerous teachers who taught me. Teachers are loving and caring people. As a whole, they tend to be socially active. In California, they are also politically very active as well. Because of their loving nature, they tend to latch on to progressive ideas. Taking the War on Drugs as an example, the teachers are very active in educating our children about the harms of drugs. This is definitely the right things to do. However, in the case of gay marriage, their loving nature is leading them wrong. A very small but vocal group of gays has for years been portraying themselves as oppressed and outcast. As a society, we have made a lot of effort to accommodate their deviant behaviors. However, they are not happy with being tolerated; they want everyone to “respect” then choice and to regard their behaviors as “normal.” A few activist judges in California Supreme Court overruled millions of voters by striking down the gay marriage ban. Now, the California voters are left with the only way to assert their voice by amending the state constitution through Proposition 8. CTA’s aggressive stance against this voice is dreadfully unloving to the majority of voters.

CTA’s involvement in this political fight does not in any way benefit their members, nor the California education system. There is simply no reason why CTA need to be involved in this. On the contrary, the large sum they donated to fight Proposition 8 can be much better used to sponsor education related projects. Given that the kids in our schools are predominately from traditional households, the stance taken by CTA irritates the parents like me. California does not have the greatest schools, and there is a lot of funding issues just beyond the horizon. CTA would need the parents to support them in these upcoming budget battles. I wish the union would be a little smarter about where they spend their membership dues, at least not to irritate their biggest constituency.

A fundamental flaw in the “equal protection” argument is the lack of moral stands. In the US, the education system has removed all moral standards from itself. This leaves the moral relativism to dominate every level of the education system. There are good reasons to recognize the values of different cultures our residents came from. However, instead of taking the good and honorable aspects of these cultural practices, we get ourselves into the business of accommodating all sorts of strange things. The homosexual act is the most prominent example of these odd balls. The AIDS scare of the 1980’s made gays into a visible group. From then on, gays have played their role as victims very well and have been well rewarded for their efforts. Comparing gays to the drug users, the difference is night-and-day. Because of the lack of standards for right-or-wrong, even though both these two groups practice unhealthy behaviors for temporary pleasure, they have enjoyed very different consequences. One of them has gained many legal rights in the past few years and is on the verge of gaining a constitutional right, while the other are still a target of War on Drugs. My kids came back from school this Monday with red bracelets that reminded them of the War on Drugs. I can not stop wondering what bracelets they will come back with to remind them of gay marriage.

PS: Given that the teachers union has been quite active in pushing for gay marriage as a constitutional right, I am pretty sure that the teachers would be more than happy to push for commemorative activities of this “hard-fought” right in school. There is already 1^st grader taking Field Trip to lesbian Wedding in San Francisco, an bracelet is not that far down the road.

Lev 18:22Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Democracy or theocracy

2008-09-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

Just saw Joe Biden being interviewed on “Meet the Press.” He was asked about his view on abortion. His answer was quite interesting. Joe stated that he was a Catholic for a long time and his belief was that “life begins at conception.” However, he suggested that there are plenty of rational people with equally valid beliefs, even those in the same Christian faith, and therefore, as a matter of government policy, he would respect their decisions and would prefer to not use the government as a means of imposing his own belief on others.
This seems to be the most rational explanation I have seen on the dilemma faced by Christina politicians, especially those on the democratic side. After all, United States of American is a country of democracy not a theocracy, no one is to simply impose their view on the rest of the population, even if their view is the majority view. If there is validity to the dissenting view, a democracy is to tolerate that dissenting view. This is what makes a democracy messy, but it is also its strength.

Christianity has long believed in democracy
Judaism, Christianity and the Origins of Democracy: Part 1 and Part 2
A sample of views on abortion based on biblical text: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Love and Justice

2008-08-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

The other day, our church program contains a quote from Dom Helder Camara: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I asked why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” The Sunday message was about the commandment “love thy neighbor as yourself.” The pastor talked about levels of love. In connection to the quote, “feeding the poor” would be one level which meets an obvious need, and “doing something about why no food” is the next level which is working for justice. Assigning a high priority to the demand of justice is supported by Mathew 23:23. (“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.)

This message appeared to be well-supported and well-articulated for the most part. However, near the end of the message, the pastor seemed to take a different tone and went to a more mundane route of exalting the congregation to be nice and so on. It seems to be a little out of place with the earlier part of the message, but I did not give it too much thought. Following the sermon, one of the old-timers blurted out something about “liberation theology” in a disapproving tone. I have heard something bad about the term, and am started to wonder how the quote and liberation theology are related. This led to a little bit of searching on the internet.

It turned out that Dom Helder Camara was a famous archbishop of Olinda and Recife in northeast of Brazil, and a influential figure in the so called “liberation theology.” His best-known work is a book titled “Spiral of Violence.” He observed a spiral of violence: injustice leads to revolt which leads to oppression that intensifies injustice. He proposes to break the spiral of violence with Action of Justice and Peace.

Even though the writing was from 1970s, his central observation is quite accurate today. There continues to be persistent and structural injustice in the international trade and within a nation. Take the relation between US and China as an example of relation between a developed country and a underdeveloped country. China performs most of the dirty manufacturing for US, while the people in US enjoy cheap toys, clothes, electronics and so on, the people in China suffers the slave-labor condition in factors and the pollution in the air. Just in case, this is a little to vague for most people, take Apple as microcosm of this relation. The factory that manufactures iPod was basically run as a labor camp, which tens of thousands of workers locked in the factor compounds, while in US Apple employees each got an iPod for Christmas. Maybe China is a little too far away for one to be concerned, then take a look at the news reports in US. The level of violence in some of the inner cities is horrifying – would this be close enough for some loving Christians to do something? The pastor who delivered that sermon did not touch anything outside of US. He seemed to be ready to talk about the inner cities -- at least the poor neighborhoods nearby, but he stepped back from that pretty quickly.

Call me blind, but I don't see the connection between the reputation of liberation theology and the quote of Archbishop Camara. In the book “Spiral of Violence” Archbishop Camara proposed a non-violent Action for Justice and Peace in the same vein of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. One of the main criticism of the liberation theology is its militant messages. So far as I can tell, Archbishop Camara was not advocating for violence.

Labeling a message on justice as liberation theology is at minimum an overreaction. Stepping out of one's comfort zone to love another and seek justice for another is very hard. However, mis-characterizing it is no way to avoid the demand of justice.

Pro 21:3 To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Saint Randy of Pittsburgh

2008-07-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

Randy Pausch died today. Like millions who have seen his last lecture, I felt inspired hearing his lecture and felt sadden by his passing.

This title refers to a nickname given to Randy Pausch in some of the blogs after the video of his lecture started to propagate on the internet. Many like me are encouraged by his message, his courageous action in face of death and his encouraging words; we thought of him as a true saint. However, many use this name to mock him. In fact, I heard of an entire radio talk show program devoted to this. The talk show host started with a five-minute segment of Randy's appearance on Oprah Winfrey Show, and then post the question “whether Randy's was Christian?” to the audience. The host's tone was pretty clear that he disapproved what was said by Randy: too much worldly ambitions, too much talking about doing than believing, too theatric, and so on.

Guess the host did not read Randy's book, because the book clearly states that he is a Christian. It is quite unfortunate the talk show host spoke before he had all the information. The last lecture was his “swan song,” his attempt to summarize his life and leave a legacy. The talk show host did not like the nickname because the name “Saint” is reserved for Christians only. Had Randy invoked the name of God every few minutes like a preacher, he would be regarded Christian then. However, his lecture was uplifting, funny, and touching, complaining about the lack of references to God is quite petty and completely missed the mark.

Randy's message was definitely “Christian” as far as I am concerned. He used his own life as an example and encouraged his listeners to follow their dreams. In his presentation, we see plenty of examples of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. Those are virtues I hope a Christian would approve. No one is righteous outside of the Lord. However, it is hard to miss the fruits of the spirit on display there. These should be enough to demonstrate that he is in the Lord.

This world lacks a hero that people can identify with. Randy is a shiny example in recent history. He faced a terminal illness in the prime of his life with joy, strength, and self-control. Instead of dying quietly, he used his life experiences to inspire millions of people around the word. I believe that this qualifies as the action described in the book of James. James would agree that Randy is a Christian with works.

I am a little disappointed by all the people claiming to be Christians but failed to recognize the fruits of the spirit. Let me close here by offering a couple explanations as how this happens. The Christian community has been under the care of shepherds who put too much emphasis on words, not nearly enough stress on actions. This creates a generation of Christians without actions and can not even recognize actions when they see them. I am pretty sure that this criticism of “St. Randy” is also a reflection of certain political affiliations as well. An inspirational message typically has an element of helping others, this is generally marked as “Democratic” in the US. This is very unfortunate because “love thy neighbor” is a calling for all Christians. However, in the US, inspirational messages are typically from Democrats, such as John F. Kennedy and Barak Obama, and Democrats are generally assumed to be atheists. Furthermore, professors are typically regarded as a Democratic, atheist or extreme liberal. This makes Randy a natural target for Christian talk show host – a message from a professor about helping others and inspiring dreams must be from the devil himself. Too bad for his listeners, the truth that Randy is a Christian with works would have been much better for everyone.

James 2:26 – For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Related information

Last Lecture on youtube

Last Lecture on google video

'Last Lecture' Computer-science Professor Randy Pausch Dies

In Memoriam: Randy Pausch, Innovative Computer Scientist at Carnegie Mellon, Launched Education Initiatives, Gained Worldwide Acclaim for Last Lecture

Dreamer Randy Pausch Dies

Last Lecture – the book and more

Some links to blogs and reports about Randy: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

The Unborn And The Mother

2008-06-17T22:03:00.000-07:00

The other day, I heard something on the radio that I just can not get it out of my mind. When I turned on the radio, I heard a man and a woman conversing about the issue of abortion. It is easy to tell they have taken the “anti-abortion” position, which is perfectly reasonable as far as I am concerned. However, the conversation quickly turned into the a discussion that the pregnancy should never be terminated even if it comes as the result of a violent rape. I could respect their views so far, but what the lady said next really got me upset. She said something like “it is commonly stated that every moment of the pregnancy the woman would be reminded of the violence, I disagree.” I simply can not fathom who give her the right to make such a statement.

The people in the US who took the extreme position that a pregnancy can not be terminated no matter what are typically Christians. So far as I can tell, the rationale of this position is derived from the command "love thy neighbour." The unborn child is a life created by God and therefore a neighbor. This is a very reasonable application of the bible. However, taking an extreme stand on this position to the point of denying legitimate feelings is violating the spirit of the command.

Some time ago, there was report of 23-year-old mother being charged in her 8-year-old son's death [report 1] [report 2]. This kid was conceived when the mother was about 14, likely through some traumatic circumstance because she treated her other kid normally. A pastor said that the more loving thing that could have been done here would be for someone to minister to the mother and someone to adopt the kid. I couldn't agree more.

Yes, speaking up for the unborn is a stand for life itself, definitely a good thing. However, taking this point to the extreme of ignoring the feeling of the mother clearly forgot that the mother is also a "neighbor" too, someone that deserves at least as much love as the unborn child. According to 1 John 4:20, one who professes a love for the unborn (whom he has not seen) but neglects the mother (whom he has seen) is a liar.

I John 4:20 If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

PS: Here is a piece by George Carlin that expresses this view in a much more colorful way. Warning George Carlin is famous for very colorful language.

Kindness of strangers

2008-05-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Once in a while, I am reminded that my life is supported by an endless streams of kindness of strangers. Here are two recent cases involving jump-starting cars.
The first one of the two cases happened last Christmas time while my family was visiting Hawaii. We were driving around in two cars and making frequent stop along a scenic drive. While stopping at one of those spots, I forgot to turn off the head lights. About an hour later when we came back to the cars, we couldn't start the car anymore. The first idea we tried is to see if we can get a jumper cable from some where to jump-start the car. However, most people in the parking lot was tourists with rental cars; no one has a jumper cable. Since we had another car that can start, we thought of drive to somewhere and get help. We stopped by at the first gas station a few miles down the road. We were very surprised that the gas station had a jumper cable and the attendant offered it to us. How nice! When we go back to the parking lot, we found the dead car was surrounded on both sides by other cars. We have get one of them to move in order to use our own car to jump start the dead one. We have to ask around a bit until we find a person whose car was next to ours. To our surprise, he offered to help us by using his car to jump start ours. He was very handy with the cars and it took only a couple of minutes for him to get the dead car started. Thanks to those two strangers, we were able to continue with our sightseeing and brought back beautiful memory of both islands and its people.
The second one happened on a trip to Oregon. A friend of mine has changed the car battery for us a few days before the trip. It was a long drive and I ended up in a small motel late in the evening. Next morning, when I tried to start my car, it was not starting. I ran back to the lobby of the motel and try to find someone to jump start the car. Luckily, a gentleman came in and said that he can jump start my car even though he is in a hurry to a meeting. He worked like a man in a hurry and was definitely efficient too. He pulled his car next to mine and in a flush, my car was started and he was on his way. The only thing I got to do was to say thanks and waved good-bye. Strangely, a little while later after a brief stop to take care of some business, I found that my car won't start again. Now, I have two things to do, starting the car again and figuring out how it keeps failing to start. Well, I managed to get get the car started again with another stranger's help, lucky for me, he also figured out that the connector for my new battery was bad and pointed me to the nearby hardware shop that might have a connector for me. I got to the shop and the first person I talked to was an off-duty employee. He was very friendly and offered to help me even though he was right in the middle of his breakfast. He located the right connector, but it turned out that removing the old connector was a big job. It took quite a bit pushing and pulling and trying out different wrenches, but he was very persistent and stayed on the task. It took about about an hour but he was able to put the new connector in its place. It has not given me any trouble since then, thanks to the help of another perfect stranger.

love thy neighbour as thyself -- Leviticus 19:18 (KJV)

The Smell of Childhood

2008-02-16T23:09:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I smelled canola blossom and saw a large patch of them in the field. This brings back a lot of childhood memories.

I was born in a village near the town of Sanhe, a small town with a very common name in that part of the world – an on-line map tells me that there are at least four different places with the same name in the same province. One of the most vivid memories from my childhood was this large patch of canola blossom surrounding the whole village during spring time. When the grown-ups go out to work in the field, we kids can roam free in the village and the field. In a sunny day, taking a nap in the middle of these flowers is one of my favorite things to do. I close my eyes and let the warm sun and cool breeze brushing against my face at the same time; I can hear the rustle of these flowers and gentle waves of the nearby pond. I had no cares in the world but my nap.
Under the spring Sun, the whole world was bright yellow. It was so bright that I can not bear to look at them. The brightness was so overwhelming, it hurts my eyes. But since the flower and the brightness surround me from every side, I had no choice to delight in them. To this day, bright yellow color still delights me.
One can not escape the smell of the flowers when they are in full bloom. The smell was like a pleasant euphoria, a dreamy nirvana, and a piece of heaven on earth all rolled together. Once the smell hits my nose, it triggers a tingle down my back. The happy smile of sunny spring is back in me; and I am transported to that magical place of innocence. I will always treasure this smell as a precious gift, a blessing across time.

Gen 27:27 “the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.”

PS: The above photo was taken at a farm near San Francisco Bay, not from Sanhe.

PPS: Some additional information about Sanhe – Battle of Sanhe,
Tourist information – from virtual tourist and Go China Travel.

meal for a poor

2007-12-16T22:01:00.000-08:00

Just saw of quote attributed to Albert Einstein (likely from Einstein by Walter Isaacson. 2007)

"I am enthralled by the lunimous figure of the Nazarene. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of the phrase-mongers, however artful... No one can read the gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."

After I saw this quote, I started to look for writings about this quote. The first piece of information found was an article Isaacson wrote for TIME megazine. This is a great quote with a lot of deep meaning behind it, however, what intrigues the most was a little side story about a weekly with a poor medical student.

When Einstain was 10, he modified an old Judism tradition and invited a poor medical student for diner weekly. This student, Max Talmud, provided the intelectual stimulation that exposed Einstein as a mathematical genius. This was a crucial piece of the puzzle to Einstein's intellectual development. I have always heard of his late language developemnt during childhood, but have not heard about how he started on his road to become an intellectual giant.

This little story is a great example of how a good deed leads to great rewards. However, I couldn't help wondering out load: how many parents would let a ten-year old invite a college kids to dinner every week nowadays?

Luk 9:48 Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me"

Christmas Day?

2007-12-09T16:28:00.000-08:00

It is Christmas time. In the US, this means packed shopping malls, holiday parties and Christmas songs everywhere one goes. No matter whether you get into this holiday groove or not, most people seem to have a jolly good time. However, there are always a few people with some sort of acts to grind; here are some silly comments about the dispute over the exact date of Christmas.

Someone named Mike sent a long message to our small group at Google. It includes a long list of items suggesting the birthday of Christ can not be December 25th. This got me quite curious. Not knowing enough about the Jewish traditions and history around that time, I only can find out what others are saying about this. Wow, was I surprised as what I found on the web. Here are three of them that seem to have reasonably sound arguments.

1. Christmas - Was Jesus Really Born on December 25th? by John Parsons: Give two possible dates based on the Jewish tradition of priestly services, one during the feast of Sukkot and the other during late December. The author has a note to the article saying “Personally, I am persuaded that Yeshua was conceived around Chanukah and born during Sukkot (in other words, I think that Zacharias heard from Gabriel during his first course of service at the Temple). And since Christmas occurs close to Chanukah, I consider it to be a valid time to remember the Incarnation of the LORD Jesus and to rejoice with others over the miracle of the love of God for us all. Among other things, that means that my family celebrates both Chanukah and Christmas!”
2. Date and Origin of Christmas (Christian Resource Center, Bermuda): Quote Francis X. Weiser, Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs(p60) as saying “The early Christians, who attributed to Christ not only the title (Kyrios) but also many other honours that the pagans paid to their "divine" emperors, naturally felt inclined to honour the birth of the Saviour. In most places the commemoration of Christ’s birth was included in the Feast of the Epiphany (Manifestations) on January 6, one of the oldest annual feasts. Soon after the end of the last great persecution, about the year 330, the Church in Rome definitely assigned December 25 for the celebration of the birth of Christ.”
3. The Real Story of Christmas by Lawrence Kelemen (Judaism online): List various date historically assigned as Jesus’ birthday and also origins of some of the Christmas traditions. Here is a quote, “In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.”

Guess the crazy Mike does have some valid points, the date of December 25th is not exactly purely based on the Scripture because the Scripture does not give an exact date. In addition the implicit complaint about the paganism in the so-called holiday tradition, especially the US version is valid to a large extend, -- many of us are way too engrossed in materialistic indulgence. Clearly, we don’t kill a unsuspecting victim after a week of indulgence like they did in Roman times, but the the indulgence itself does the killing for us. After the holidays, many more people suffer from mounting debts for all the fancy gifts, the extra weight gained because of overeating, and the stress of partying. These things probably kill more than what Romans did.

One can argue about the exact date, but one thing is clear we do need a time to celebrate the birth of Christ. The original idea of instituting Christmas to celebrate Christ’s birth and to displace the pagan rituals seems to be as relevant today as in that time long ago.

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born

Poetry Award

2007-12-03T12:11:00.000-08:00

I was all stressed out about an impending deadline when I came into the office on Monday, but was very amused to find a large envelope with the following poetry award certificate inside

What a surprise! The first question come to mind is "did I actual write
this poem?" Apparently, I did.

This must be from a few months back. A far as I could remember, I clicked on some advertisement, presumably from poetry.com, that asked to enter something but I had no way to get rid of the advertisement other than enterying something. I did the only thing that I could do at that moment.

Just when I was about to think that I was such a genius poet, I noticed there were more pages in the same envelope. One of them asked me to send in $49.99 to have my peom framed and another one asked me to send in $29.99 to have it recorded on to a CD. Oh, well, guess, now I know the real reason behind the award.

Job 15:31 Let not him that is
deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompense.

What I am thankful for this year

2007-11-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

"Make lists of things for which you're grateful in your life." While I was trying to find something to listen in a car, I heard this brief statement. Since this is the Thanksgiving holiday, it seems to be the perfect time for me to make such a list. I will start from the things of immediate concern to those with broader consequences.

I am very grateful that I can see the end of the tunnel for the work that seemed to consume endless hours during the last couple of weeks. The work requires a program to handle some searching operations on a toroidal mesh used to simulate magnetic confinement for nuclear fusion (more background information about the project). This program contains some intricate computation involving the coordinates on the torus. It has been causing headache also because I am running against a deadline to present the results at a progress meeting. Well, I saw the end of the tunnel in the afternoon of the Thanksgiving day. As I am writing this piece, my laptop is humming away to crack through the suit of tests to verify the correctness of the program. This thing has prevented me from making any planes for this weekend in advance, now I can at least see the end of it -- what a relief.

Talking about work, I am grateful that I have a job. Ever since graduating from college, I was able to support myself through various jobs, except for a brief period of under-employment during grad school. I still remember the horror I felt. Thank God that I don't have to feel like that today. More importantly, I get to work with decent people, colleagues who care about our work and bosses who care about employees. I am also very happy that this job has brought me a roof over my head, cars to drive us around, and all the strange gadgets that I could not image when I was growing up.

I am grateful for my family. I thank my parents for taking good care of my kids. I used to be ashamed to admit this because it seemed to be not the American thing to do. The fact is that having the grandparents watching the kids is definitely better than having strangers watching them. That is good enough for me! I am very grateful that the kids are doing fine in school. Their school was closed for a few days earlier in the week so the teachers can have one-on-one meetings with the parents. I am very happy to hear both of their teachers saying good things about them. They can be naughty like all kids do sometimes, but they are on the right trajectories, which is what really counts.

I am grateful for the California sun shine. I spent many years in Midwestern states. After I moved to California to this current job, I often complained about not having a white Christmas. Recently, I have learned to enjoy the sun shine and even learned to live with the threat of earthquake. A friend of mine has a relative who works on earthquake prediction, once in a while he give me a sneak peek at the charts measuring the tectonic stresses and share with me the odds of coming earthquakes. Goodness gracious, nothing serious has come yet. I truly thank God for this peaceful year in California.

Col 3:15 be ye thankful.

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." - Marcus Cicero
Here are some writings on the connection between happiness and gratitude:
A self-test of gratitude