I read "How much land does a man need?" by Leo Tolstoy in high school.
Have you read it? It's short and sweet, unlike his other epic novels. Here's what I can remember about this story. The farmers were given a chance to run from dawn to dusk around a piece of land, and if they could come back to the spot where they started by dusk, they would own that piece of land. So this one farmer, wanting a bigger piece of property, kept running farther and farther through the day using all his strength and might. Eventually, he did get back to where he started by dusk, but he was so physically spent that he die. They buried him in his own piece of land, "six feet from his head to his heel is all he needed."
I heard different ways which convey the same idea by different religions and philosophy, but still, the message in this story was loud and clear, and it really put my life in perspective since my early years.
So, what is the point of life? You may ask. I'm afraid this is not something anyone else can answer for you. Live, explore, and find what makes you happy and stick with it. When you have mastered it, keep it with you and explore something new. There will be lots of choices and people who can give you ideas, but in the end, the decision is all yours. Don't do things because that's what others want for their lives. Know that no matter what decision you make, you will come out alright. Just as long as you don't do something illegal, and more importantly, try not to harm other beings along the way.
This is my gift to you today.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Some free advice to Jimmy Fallon
I only "discovered" the Comedy Central last year, so I have missed the prime of two Comedy Central popular talk shows: The Colbert Report and Jon Stewart's Daily Show. A few months before Stephen Colbert concluded his show, I started to watch and enjoyed the Colbert Report and the Daily Show in a daily basis (thanks to TiVo). Shortly after I "lost" the Colbert Report, I watched Jon Stewart announced his "retirement" on the show, and I was both disappointed and concerned. Who would pick up the political satire talk shows, and could do as good a job as these two? If you ask me, it seems very much like a drought season for the TV comedic talk show business. Of course, Stephen Colbert is going to succeed David Letterman, and Jimmy Fallon already picked up the Tonight's show, so I started recording the Tonight's Show and catch up with them whenever my time permits.
Let me first say that every comedian has his or her special authenticity. It is a personal taste for the audience to like or dislike a certain style. Jimmy Fallon is young and relatively well established in the show business, because he was already doing the Late Night show for years before filling Jay Leno's big shoes. Jimmy Fallon is a likeable and humble person, at least that's how it shows anyway. He has talents in many areas such as lip synching, dancing, and very quick on his feet like a perfect New Yorker. As I was watching him, I couldn't help but wonder if there were room for improvements for his shows.
So here are my observations and thoughts.
Is it me or is it true that Jimmy Fallon's monologues are not as long or funny as the others? From most of the shows I watched, and I didn't watch many, his monologues were relating to politicians. His jokes basically start with Hillary Clinton, and end with Ted Cruz. I almost felt like there weren't enough monologues and I wanted to hear more.
I like "hashtag", because it shows that he embrace modern social media to reach out to his audience. Always a smart thing to do.
He has to work on his interviews. Most of the time he talks too much and didn't allow the guests speak. There were times when he kept talking (about the guests) while the guest sat there nodding, because there was no leading question. The one I could think of is the nice and happy Taylor Swift. I thought she might be wondering, "Why am I here?" Other times when the more proactive guests would interrupt him. His recent interview with Mrs. Obama was a perfect example, he was talking about her healthy campaign and didn't leave any room for her, so the skilled First Lady finally interrupted him and said the purpose and achievements of her campaign. Remember, when you interview someone, it's not about you, it's about them. Some other times Jimmy was definitely flustered when beautiful actresses flirted with him, his recent interview (two days ago) with the Geogeous and fun Scarlett Johansson, for example. I guess it's natural that he was flustered, but the fact that I could see it is not very good for Mr. Host of the Tonight's show.
He introduced games with his guests, it is an interesting concept, but honestly, most of them were not funny. Some of them, at least, I could tell the guests were caught off guard and weren't having fun. The one came to mind was his interview and game with Colin Firth. I no longer remember the details, but I thought it was kind of boring. Games with guests is tricky because actors when they are off the stage, they are not entertainers anymore, and they bring their own personalities to your show, and not all of them are so fun or upbeat or entertaining or quick. Right?
So what else, oh, he really has to work on expanding his vocabulary. Every time he introduces a guest, she is always "the greatest, and he loves her." He uses the same lines of introduction for "hashtag," and it makes me feel like I was watching a rerun of the show. Is it out of laziness or other reason? I don't know, but it's better if he doesn't do this.
Constructive advice maybe hard to hear, but I wrote this down because I like Jimmy Fallon and I think he could definitely get better as he matures in his job. If he listens to me, he may improve sooner, and make me a happier audience. If I don't care about him, I wouldn't spend time to watch his shows nor waste time to write this down on a perfect Saturday morning.
Let me first say that every comedian has his or her special authenticity. It is a personal taste for the audience to like or dislike a certain style. Jimmy Fallon is young and relatively well established in the show business, because he was already doing the Late Night show for years before filling Jay Leno's big shoes. Jimmy Fallon is a likeable and humble person, at least that's how it shows anyway. He has talents in many areas such as lip synching, dancing, and very quick on his feet like a perfect New Yorker. As I was watching him, I couldn't help but wonder if there were room for improvements for his shows.
So here are my observations and thoughts.
Is it me or is it true that Jimmy Fallon's monologues are not as long or funny as the others? From most of the shows I watched, and I didn't watch many, his monologues were relating to politicians. His jokes basically start with Hillary Clinton, and end with Ted Cruz. I almost felt like there weren't enough monologues and I wanted to hear more.
I like "hashtag", because it shows that he embrace modern social media to reach out to his audience. Always a smart thing to do.
He has to work on his interviews. Most of the time he talks too much and didn't allow the guests speak. There were times when he kept talking (about the guests) while the guest sat there nodding, because there was no leading question. The one I could think of is the nice and happy Taylor Swift. I thought she might be wondering, "Why am I here?" Other times when the more proactive guests would interrupt him. His recent interview with Mrs. Obama was a perfect example, he was talking about her healthy campaign and didn't leave any room for her, so the skilled First Lady finally interrupted him and said the purpose and achievements of her campaign. Remember, when you interview someone, it's not about you, it's about them. Some other times Jimmy was definitely flustered when beautiful actresses flirted with him, his recent interview (two days ago) with the Geogeous and fun Scarlett Johansson, for example. I guess it's natural that he was flustered, but the fact that I could see it is not very good for Mr. Host of the Tonight's show.
He introduced games with his guests, it is an interesting concept, but honestly, most of them were not funny. Some of them, at least, I could tell the guests were caught off guard and weren't having fun. The one came to mind was his interview and game with Colin Firth. I no longer remember the details, but I thought it was kind of boring. Games with guests is tricky because actors when they are off the stage, they are not entertainers anymore, and they bring their own personalities to your show, and not all of them are so fun or upbeat or entertaining or quick. Right?
So what else, oh, he really has to work on expanding his vocabulary. Every time he introduces a guest, she is always "the greatest, and he loves her." He uses the same lines of introduction for "hashtag," and it makes me feel like I was watching a rerun of the show. Is it out of laziness or other reason? I don't know, but it's better if he doesn't do this.
Constructive advice maybe hard to hear, but I wrote this down because I like Jimmy Fallon and I think he could definitely get better as he matures in his job. If he listens to me, he may improve sooner, and make me a happier audience. If I don't care about him, I wouldn't spend time to watch his shows nor waste time to write this down on a perfect Saturday morning.
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Rock bottom
Last Sunday on our way home we saw three police cars parked by the side of the road, and it turned out that they stopped one car. For some reason, the driver of that car got out to talking to the police.
The first thing came to my mind was, "Oh, good, at least he is not a black guy."
I have to say, the reputation of the police departments across this country has hit rock bottom. I am sadden to hear endless police killings of black men, by accident, negligent or other reasons.
There is definitely room for improvement in this area, and I am hoping someone very strong will come out to fix this mess.
The first thing came to my mind was, "Oh, good, at least he is not a black guy."
I have to say, the reputation of the police departments across this country has hit rock bottom. I am sadden to hear endless police killings of black men, by accident, negligent or other reasons.
There is definitely room for improvement in this area, and I am hoping someone very strong will come out to fix this mess.
Working too hard
This topic has been on my mind for a long time, but this is the first time I ever wrote it down.
There are people who are hard working and there are people who are relatively lazy, but here, by "working too hard," I mean using our bodies too much while performing certain tasks or being in a certain posture. For example, when I brush my teeth, I have the habit of brushing too hard, which could be harmful to the teeth over time. When I taught yoga, the first thing I checked on each student was if there was unnecessarily used the body muscles, such as shrugged shoulders for warrior I and II, or even in mountain pose.
If you pay attention, you can find much more examples where you unnecessarily stress your body. Like if you are very focused while typing, your shoulders and neck could be strained, and over time, it would develop pain. You can also chew too hard, do you notice?
Now is the time to pay attention to these little trigger points of pain, and correct them if you can. Try to be effortless instead of working your body too hard.
Like my physical therapist, Mr. M, said:
Less is more,
No pain, no game is false.
There are people who are hard working and there are people who are relatively lazy, but here, by "working too hard," I mean using our bodies too much while performing certain tasks or being in a certain posture. For example, when I brush my teeth, I have the habit of brushing too hard, which could be harmful to the teeth over time. When I taught yoga, the first thing I checked on each student was if there was unnecessarily used the body muscles, such as shrugged shoulders for warrior I and II, or even in mountain pose.
If you pay attention, you can find much more examples where you unnecessarily stress your body. Like if you are very focused while typing, your shoulders and neck could be strained, and over time, it would develop pain. You can also chew too hard, do you notice?
Now is the time to pay attention to these little trigger points of pain, and correct them if you can. Try to be effortless instead of working your body too hard.
Like my physical therapist, Mr. M, said:
Less is more,
No pain, no game is false.
Being tourists
On the second leg of our Hawaii trip, we went from Kauai to the Big Island of Hawaii. It is the first time I have been to the Big Island. I "arranged" the trip as far as booking for hotel and flights. I put a quote around arrange because I totally dropped the ball in terms of research and prepare for the trip. So I knew Kona was on the west side and Hilo east of the Island, and that's pretty much all I knew at the time, well I might have sort of looked at the map a little.
First of all, where we stayed and where we were going to was completely opposite in my mind's plan then it was in reality. This island is very big and still growing - lava flow expansion into the ocean. When I booked the hotel, I was told - most likely by someone who had no clue about the island - that I would stay on the Kona side. Now we wanted to go to Hilo to check out the neighborhood and go to the botanical garden, so it would be a drive, I got that. But in my mind, I thought we would drive from west to north to the east - Kona to Hilo. Mind you, I had no clue of the biggest attraction, the volcanoes.
So you could imagine my surprise after landing on Kona, hopping in the piping hot rental car, and punching the hotel address into the GPS, we were directed to hwy 11 and would drive south bound for 60 miles. Then I read the hotel information in the car and found that the recommended airport was Hilo airport. OK, this is not good.
Along the way, there were signs for 100% Hawaiian coffee estate everywhere, and I intend to try some good Kona coffee while we are here. Outside of the Kona area, there was pretty much a road in the middle of the jungles and deserts with no businesses and very little residential area. I felt concerned to discover what was to come.
Two hours later, we finally reached our hotel/condo. It is in the southernmost of nowhere. The condos were built into small huts, which was very cool. I went to check in. The receptionist gave us the room keys and some paper work, and charged my card for tax, then she asked, "did you get any groceries?" And my said alarmingly: "No." It didn't surprise her a bit. She said matter-of-factly, without sympathy, I should add, "we usually recommend doing shopping on the way here from either Kona or Hilo. There is a small store 6 miles from here to the west, and there are some restaurants there as well ......" I didn't get everything she said, because she went very fast, perhaps out of practice. But I got it that in order to eat anything and buy grocery, we have to drive back to where we came from for 6 miles. She also told us there were restaurants 8 miles from us to the east, Hilo direction, and the town of Hilo was 1 hour and 10 minutes away, which was quite exact.
We found our way to our tiny studio facing the golf course, and unpacked. Then we had to decide what to do about food and water. The decision was easy. We went back west bound to look for food, and found Hana Hou, who claimed they were the southernmost restaurant in the U.S.A. Which was impressive. The food was good.
After dinner, we stopped by the store across the street looking for coffee creamer and fruits, but they didn't have much of anything, tho they did have two freezerful of ice. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the 76 gas station, which looked sparkly new compared to every other building in the neighborhood, to look for water and creamer, etc, and I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of choices of milk and drinks. I grabbed a couple of bottles of Hawaiian water, a bottle of milk, and some yogurt as if I was afraid that they would vanish. The cashier was very kind to give my extra sugar packages for making coffee in the morning as he was apologetic that they ran out of creamer.
Serendipitously, because of my poor trip planning we found the southernmost "thing" - restaurant, bakery and bar, of the U.S.A.
First of all, where we stayed and where we were going to was completely opposite in my mind's plan then it was in reality. This island is very big and still growing - lava flow expansion into the ocean. When I booked the hotel, I was told - most likely by someone who had no clue about the island - that I would stay on the Kona side. Now we wanted to go to Hilo to check out the neighborhood and go to the botanical garden, so it would be a drive, I got that. But in my mind, I thought we would drive from west to north to the east - Kona to Hilo. Mind you, I had no clue of the biggest attraction, the volcanoes.
So you could imagine my surprise after landing on Kona, hopping in the piping hot rental car, and punching the hotel address into the GPS, we were directed to hwy 11 and would drive south bound for 60 miles. Then I read the hotel information in the car and found that the recommended airport was Hilo airport. OK, this is not good.
Along the way, there were signs for 100% Hawaiian coffee estate everywhere, and I intend to try some good Kona coffee while we are here. Outside of the Kona area, there was pretty much a road in the middle of the jungles and deserts with no businesses and very little residential area. I felt concerned to discover what was to come.
Two hours later, we finally reached our hotel/condo. It is in the southernmost of nowhere. The condos were built into small huts, which was very cool. I went to check in. The receptionist gave us the room keys and some paper work, and charged my card for tax, then she asked, "did you get any groceries?" And my said alarmingly: "No." It didn't surprise her a bit. She said matter-of-factly, without sympathy, I should add, "we usually recommend doing shopping on the way here from either Kona or Hilo. There is a small store 6 miles from here to the west, and there are some restaurants there as well ......" I didn't get everything she said, because she went very fast, perhaps out of practice. But I got it that in order to eat anything and buy grocery, we have to drive back to where we came from for 6 miles. She also told us there were restaurants 8 miles from us to the east, Hilo direction, and the town of Hilo was 1 hour and 10 minutes away, which was quite exact.
We found our way to our tiny studio facing the golf course, and unpacked. Then we had to decide what to do about food and water. The decision was easy. We went back west bound to look for food, and found Hana Hou, who claimed they were the southernmost restaurant in the U.S.A. Which was impressive. The food was good.
After dinner, we stopped by the store across the street looking for coffee creamer and fruits, but they didn't have much of anything, tho they did have two freezerful of ice. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the 76 gas station, which looked sparkly new compared to every other building in the neighborhood, to look for water and creamer, etc, and I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of choices of milk and drinks. I grabbed a couple of bottles of Hawaiian water, a bottle of milk, and some yogurt as if I was afraid that they would vanish. The cashier was very kind to give my extra sugar packages for making coffee in the morning as he was apologetic that they ran out of creamer.
Serendipitously, because of my poor trip planning we found the southernmost "thing" - restaurant, bakery and bar, of the U.S.A.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
A bad patch
On 92 East Bound exiting to Foster City, there is a pothole which was recently patched. I know because every time I drove on it, I hit a bump, and it was worse than before it was fixed. I noticed many people, including myself, tried to avoid droving on it if we could help it, which in high traffic hours could have been dangerous.
I wonder if it and how it could be fixed up again.
Sometimes, a bad patch is worse than not patching at all.
I wonder if it and how it could be fixed up again.
Sometimes, a bad patch is worse than not patching at all.
Vintage
As we were in our rental Nissan Altima driving around the Kauai Island, I took a look at the three-button car key laying in the cup holder, and thought that key-less cars were becoming the norm nowadays.
"Pretty soon my car would become vintage." I marveled. I drive a 2004 Honda Accord, which still use the traditional car key.
Jack said: "Vintage would be over 25 years."
He thought about it and continued, "I remember when people used to drive those cars such as Chevelle, Impala, Corvear, and they were pos (piece of sh**). Now people drive them as if they were vintage. They are vintage pos."
"Pretty soon my car would become vintage." I marveled. I drive a 2004 Honda Accord, which still use the traditional car key.
Jack said: "Vintage would be over 25 years."
He thought about it and continued, "I remember when people used to drive those cars such as Chevelle, Impala, Corvear, and they were pos (piece of sh**). Now people drive them as if they were vintage. They are vintage pos."
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