Farewell to D&YE

I have been an avid reader of David’s new blog. David and YE are moving to England for graduate school. Their summer plan is traveling from Boston to London westbound. They have been doing the southern US route from Boston to Seattle this month. True to their promises, they have been keeping their travel journal up-to-date. It is really quite a fun read. Their journal blog is posted at http://spaces.msn.com/daviddanielphotography/blog/

They are leaving the US for Malaysia tomorrow morning. At some point in July, they will arrive in China and stay with my parents for a few days in Shanghai. I say, good luck to enduring the impossible 100F heat there! Xixi.

Da Vinci Code – Spoilers in this Blog

It is the opening night for Da Vinci Code in Chicago. The book has stirred up such a storm in the past couple of years that it has not only been a best seller, but books about the book have also been best sellers. Recently there was an intellectual property lawsuit about the book, which put it even more in the spotlight. Now there is the movie, and religious debates, and the Vatican’s wrath…

What’s the buzz? Well, if you want to hear about the biggest gossip in human history, go read the book, which is a very easy read by the way, or simply go watch the movie. The conspiracy theory definitely has its logic and merits some thought.

What’s the big deal about a royal bloodline? My impression is that western society prides itself in the division between state and religion. If Christ is a King, what would his descendents be? Are they also kings and queens? How literal do we take that? The easiest way out is to simply assume Christ left no offspring.

Mainstream Christian belief nowadays is that Jesus Christ is more than a prophet. He is the Son of God. He is divine. Do the divine also have human needs? It would not be out of the norm for the ancient Greek gods, but Christians historically set themselves apart from pagan thoughts. God is wise beyond our intelligence and is anything but fickle. It is conceivable that Christ having children of his own is distasteful to some.

The movie turned out more moderate than I thought. It was not meant to be a balancing act against Passion of the Christ. On the contrary, I saw deliberate effort by the film director to moderate the central theme without compromising the story. It was definitely worth the 2 hours on a Friday night.

Nevi's Story

This is the third engagement I have heard this year. Nevi, a friend who is now finishing her Ph.D. in Economics at Michigan, just got engaged last Thursday, to Chris, who also lives in Michigan and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Biology. I was very excited when I heard the news and was shrieking like a high school chick. Nevi and Chris are really very good for each other. They are fun to be around, immensely creative in indoor decoration and grow a beautiful organic vegetable garden and many plants. I love their apartment. They are so creative and meticulous. No little corner is repetitive or cliche, unlike our boring IKEA-furnished apartment. Nevi is a vegetarian but I must say I did not know vegetarian food could taste this good before. I look forward to attending their engagement party, if there is one, and having another plate of their delicious food.

ExTremeNerd

After receiving an error code when I was programming in STATA today, I looked up STATA's Help menu for hints, and came across an EXTREMELY nerdy message. It took me a while to realize how low nerds can sink...

[P] error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Return code 505
matrix not symmetric;
You have issued a matrix command that can only be performed on
a symmetric matrix and your matrix is not symmetric. While fixing
their code, programmers are requested to admire our choice of the
"symmetric" number 505 -- it is symmetric about the zero -- for
this error.

Green Machine and All that

My day went uneventfully until about 6.20 pm after I bought a pound of head-on shrimps in Vietnam town to make dinner. After I restarted my car, I realized my brake was not working. Oh, this is the day that I have a car accident, I thought. My next thought was, before I hit a car or a pedestrian, I’d better get the car to stop. I ended up bumping down a young tree on the sidewalk. Fortunately no one was hurt.

A police car pulled over almost immediately—the officers happened to be on duty on that street. I begged for pardon and implored them not to raise my insurance premium. I told them I was a poor Ph.D. student from the University of Chicago. Police officers are kind people. After about 15-20 minutes in their car, they let me go. I got out of that minute accident without hurting anyone or my finances, although the tree is now a few inches taller than before. I felt pretty smart about avoiding a potential disaster.

Somehow car accidents are unnerving. I left the emergency brake on the entire trip home. I was always proud of my Green Machine: driving down the yuppie part of town or the Magnificent Mile in my cheap-ass loud aqua-colored car, or cruising along south Chicago to keep it real. Now I am having second thoughts. No matter how a cheap loud car can make one cool, I am not interested in spending time in the Cook Country jail. Here is my new resolution: once I get my cash flow going again, I will converge to an average citizen and get myself a new car, just for the safety of it.

I got home and quickly gulfed down a few drinks just to calm my nerves. It is funny how life rewards one in its uncanny ways. I got two postcards and three phone calls from my friends. It is quite uncommon for me to receive postcards and phone calls, probably because I am a lousy person at keeping in touch. The greetings I received all happened to be from friends who are very special to me, or are becoming special. I used to lament that I am a rootless tree floating on an endless ocean, being thousands of miles away from home and all that. Over the years, though, I have grown close with people whom I would consider also rootless trees. They have become my family here, my bro’s and sis’. This feeling is very special.

Ansel

Ansel got into University of Chicago! He has been working very hard for the past one and a half years and built up an impressive resume. Assuming financial aid works out, we might become alumni. :)

Bikram Yoga

I went to a Bikram yoga class last weekend. Bikram yoga is also advertised as power yoga sometimes, for a good reason. The class is held in a room heated between 95 and 105 F with 40 – 60% humidity, and is 90 minutes long. During the practice, I wanted to call it quits multiple times. How I longed for the cool air outside!

Why practice yoga in an oven? Here are a few reasons. The student is more flexible in a heated environment. Her joints are more nimble. Power yoga in North America is more reminiscent of how yoga was originally practiced. Maybe she would have an easier time reaching nirvana. Power yoga is a pilgrimage in a way – self-inflicted pain is a good disciplinary measure. The student did feel life was treating her well after the practice. But this is her favorite part: sweat flushes out toxins, so her skin might look better. Xixi.