Ying's answers to (almost) everything

Q: I have a headache.
Y: Drink some water or hot tea and rest.

Q: I have back pain.
Y: Stretch.

Q: I am feeling fatigue.
Y: Rest.

Q: I'm tired.
Y: Take a break and do some stretching.

Q: I have a sore throat.
Y: drink some hot water.

They work, they are free and don't take much time.

Judge

"Don't judge a book by its cover." To extend that, I would say: "Don't judge a culture by one book."

Jack just finished reading one of the four great ancient Chinese novels, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." It's a historic novel about the Three Kingdoms in the Chinese history, around AD 220 - 280. The book was a novel written based on historical characters and some legendary stories.

I knew the story since childhood from our noon time storytelling on the radio. The four great novels are, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," "The Dream of the Red Chamber," "Journey to the West," and "Water Margin."

According to Jack, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was poorly translated (which is really a shame), and the characters' names were too hard to remember, which make reading and enjoying it difficult. Think "War and Peace," with people's names directly translated from Chinese, which totally don't make sense in English, for example: Cao, Cao. This is the book that's like Lord of the Rings for fantasy novels in English literature.

From time to time, I like to ask Jack what he thought of the book out of curiosity. Here are some of his other impressions:

• There are lots of detail descriptions of weapons.
• People were very superstitious, for example, if there was a fallen tree close to camp, it would be a bad omen for battle.
• The book was all about battles, men and strategies. There was no female characters in the story, so no romance. I guess, it's kind of a book about "bromance." 
• Now he knows the legendary Chinese characters such as Guan Yu, the exemplar Chinese warrior, who is also treated like a God of protection in Chinese culture (sort of like Captain America). Kong Ming, who is the exemplar and the best war strategist ever (in history, present time and in the future, that is).  Both of them worked for the Kingdom of Wei, for the Liu camp.
• Some punishments were very cruel. If the king was angry with someone who worked for him, he would not only kill that person, but also his family and perhaps extended family. Arhhh!
• At war if they killed a warrior that they admired, they would give him an honorable burial to show respect.

Sounds kind of barbaric doesn't it? Well, think 2000 years ago, the world is probably a pretty inhumane place, and hard to fathom.

This week Jack started reading "The Dream of the Red Chamber," which was written by a different author in a different era, but was translated by the same person. I asked what he thought of the book so far, and he said: "It's so totally different from the other book, this one is very sensual, and it's all about feelings and emotions." That's so true, there is so much beauty and romance in this book, and it will certainly provide a different dimension to the Chinese literature and culture. 

Well, we all know it's not good to judge, but none-judging is also very hard to do. So I would say, let judging happens, be conscious of it, and then let it go. Grow from each and every (judging) experience.

Packing list

Jack and I just came back from a long road trip with the dogs, from San Francisco Bay Area, to Denver Colorado. I've never driven in the winter, snowy conditions, so I've been concerned about the safety of the trip.

There were not much planning could be done in terms of where to stay, and which route to take, because all of that really depended on how the weather would be around the time. A couple of days before the trip, I tried to do more planning, so I pulled out my packing list -

1. Snacks
2. Blankets