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    November 22

    Getting better & 龟虽寿

    最近周末经常和一个70岁的老教授打球。第一次是一个月前,和他打了三个小时的 squash,之后他什么事没有,我全身疼了3天。(Come on, 如果你知道他完成过十个马拉松中的七个,号称我们系现存最好的squash player, 每周打三次,就不会觉得我太弱了。) 关于squash, 他说 You are a clear example of getting better by doing nothing. 让我美了半天. 因为目前我只有他一个squash partner,一周一次,但是每次开始时都表现出长足的进步。他也许要把行为学观察进行到底,就把球拿走了,我也没有机会去买,于是平时根本无法练习。。。
     
    观察进行了几周后,为低水平运动员做陪练的无聊程度终于达到了一个高峰,于是,我又应他要求他打了一个多小时的乒乓球。他说 The last time I played was 10 years ago, so I can hardly hit the ball, 可是事实上他太谦虚了,会一些削球扣杀,原来他大学时每天都打。。。不过我还是比他打的好一点,虽然我也很久没打野球了。然后我们又顺手打了一点篮球。
     
    哎,他每天在系里穿件标志性的红衬衫,一头白发,弓着背,曲着腿,带着个老花镜或快或慢的走,在seminar时经常缓慢的问一些充满冷幽默的问题,而且从被允许发言到发话总要历时3秒以上。生活质量真是不可貌相。
    November 17

    addiction 缓慢填坑中

    老话题了。
    最近health care policies and managment 的课讲到了obesity, smoking, alcohol, and illegal substances. 酒精成瘾的社会问题在美国特别的复杂,也很严重。具有讽刺意味的是,美国同时拥有严格的酒精管制和严重的酗酒现象 (我倾向于在这相互矛盾的事实前方各加上一个“最”字)。昨晚又看了一个rehab的深夜节目, 主要讲了酒精成瘾,一个感觉,这些精神疾病真是偏爱那些内心骄傲并且拥有骄傲资本的人。从某种程度上说,似乎will power越强大,越具有“成功人格”,摔得越悲惨。
    这个其实也很好理解,rewarding system比较活跃的人,办事比较容易goal oriented/success oriented。再加上完美主义,生活顿时成为在刀尖上的舞蹈, 或者陡峭的山脊上的小路。
    其中有一个PTA mom, 心理学的本科,还曾经在 rehab center 作过social worker,但是nothing can meet her needs. run out of vodka之后,居然抱着含有20% 酒精的 mouthwash 醒了灌,灌了睡, 因为don't want to start her day, 真是长醉不复醒了。
    being sober确实是一种和成瘾完全不同的感觉。
    "人欲成仙,天必诛之"。
    November 13

    诸事随时如流水 此怀无处不春风 (引用)

    “正法真正融入相续的修行者,他们的身、语、意三门应如脚踩在棉花上或者米粥里加入酥油一样柔软、调和。否则自己成办少分善事或护持少许净戒就认为我已如何如何了,相续恒时充满我慢,对方言词稍有不当便说:“他轻视、污辱我了!”而心中愤愤然、气冲冲,这说明正法与自相续已互相脱离,是正法丝毫也无益于自心之标帜。如金厄瓦格西说:“我们越闻思修行我执越重,而忍耐力比新肌 还弱,心量狭小比卫藏的厉鬼 更加暴躁易怒,这是闻思修已颠倒之标帜。”因此我们应于一切时处谦虚谨慎、身居卑位、身著破衣、恭敬上中下所有的人而着重修持慈悲菩提心(以慈悲菩提心为本),以正法调伏自相续是修行的无误要点,所以它已胜过了无益于自心成千上万的高高见解及甚深修习。"

    November 04

    一代海归--红尘多少奇才

    对一百年前的留学海外的那些人来说,也许因为没有bbs,回国或是定居海外,似乎都是非常自然的个人选择。同时,也许受安土重迁的观念影响,当年的归国华侨也在很多地方开枝散叶。这些人历经改朝换代,大多身名俱灭,埋没百草。于是我小时候认定我的家乡和她所拥有的大学是不见经传的,可是今天看来也曾有一些人物。比如,我家楼上曾住了一个老画家,就是一个颇具传奇色彩的海龟,据说当年在法国一画成名之后封笔,终生不作,回乡教书。今天他已过世多年,他的名字也许仍然有专业人士听说过。再比如,在中国致力新学的,除了漂洋过海的传教士和走马兰台的近代政府,还有身世浮沉的民间海龟和旧大学生。今日中国的种种很多都是从他们手中继承的,重省那些被改造/改进的面目全非的吉光片羽,从儿时的记忆中翻寻音容笑貌,其中之奇妙难以言传。无论归国还是远徙,他们的姓名早已湮没不显,而他们的努力,正如点缀夜空的寥落晨星,在乱世风云中时隐时现。那一点光亮是如此的模糊,以至作为他们没落的子孙,我也几乎不能查考。毕竟要在喧嚣的历史上留下哪怕一丝印迹,即便聪明绝世,也非常需要助力和运气。
     
    于是看到越来越多的人,没有见过旧知识分子的节操和风骨,便以为圣贤都是张嘴就来的骗子;读过几行书的人,没有经历过痛苦的自我挣扎,就可以为一点瑕疵,打碎价值连城的美玉。 这样看来,四十年前的那场革命真是名副其实的扭转乾坤。在北美的这批读破万卷书的人中,居然还有这么多容易被煽动的民众。
     
    p.s. 在那颗巨星陨落的第二天,也就是halloween, 我们系一个老教授和我打球,问,你知不知道这件事。我说恩,看到新闻了,您居然也注意到了。他说,巨星的一个nephew,原来在我们系,我说,好像听说过,是不是xx 钱, 他纠正说,嗯,你应该叫他xxx 钱或是x 钱,而不是xx 钱。 他又说他的另一个nephew拿了去年的诺贝尔,我说嗯嗯,是的。然后他说,我听说钱是因为美国对他很不好,不让他接触机密研究才回中国的。我说,恩,这也是我听说的,至少是原因之一吧。
     
    这个也算个八卦吧。在那个风雨飘摇的时代,爱国之心,几人没有。至于亩产万斤的论证和人体科学的闹剧,这两个事例能共存于同一个个体,本身就说明他是一个比较独立的科学家。当然他作为黄金台效应的优秀代表,位高言重,所有错误都被放在放大镜下观看。只是我们的国家,如果哪一天可以如他所愿,培养出具有原创能力和信心的团队,估计大多数人都可以更淡定宽恕的对待自己和他人,也就不会存在像我这样一把年纪的愤青了。
    October 17

    无心插柳

    那么,花呢?

    这三年比较大的教训是:一 自己能容忍不同的价值观,不意味着实际操作中可以无视代沟和差异的存在;二 不能 set up myself to overwhelming situations; 三 it is possible to be weak in a harmless way;四 I do have emotion, so I need to a way to let it out。

    October 12

    今天星期一 | 芝加哥, 美国中部广袤大地上的一颗明珠

    周末总是令人疲惫的。周六看了场戏,戏剧学院的年轻学生排的。然后我室友在家开了个clown costume party, 很好玩,除此之外似乎一直宅着。
     
    今天早上很晚才起来,发现用了八年的床单终于磨散了。来美国后,因为衣服可以烘干,我就日复一日的坚持蹂躏同一块印着“北医学生公寓”的蓝色格子床单,于是测出了这种单子的预期寿命。和我一起拿到这种床单的大学同学多也拿到了他们博士学位,在美国都可以算MD/PhD行走江湖了。八年前我们住进的五号楼,貌似是医学院校园里最新的建筑:楼道像宾馆,房间里的新家具需要除味,而这一套床上用品据说像病房里用的。今天我忽然好奇学校是如何把世行的贷款还清的。在这过去的几年里,有时我可能处于一种living death的状态,也不知道现在活过来了没有。
     
    来美国上学已经进入第四年。上周末出游芝加哥时,我和小婷婷在starbuck里躲雨,坐在一个英国旅客旁边,他说 his aunt moved to Australia and enjoyed the first 10~15 years there. Then she regreted, but Britain had become too expensive for her to move back. 这种教训现在就要开始吸取啊。
     
    说到这次旅行,真是非常的有收获。阴晴云雨,日落月出,像海一样的大湖和白沙滩,整洁而富有艺术气息的市区,颠覆了风城在我心目中严寒肃穆,遍地鹰犬的黑帮形象。穿过欧式建筑和现代高楼的河流,富裕而葱茏的居民区,铁路边似曾相识的砖楼木梯,古典的学校,漂亮的医院,奇妙的大钢豆(cloud gate),今年最后的音乐节. 不失时机的焰火,非常deep-dished的pizza。 没有风,没有雪,有好友导游的旅途真是太美好了。以致回到new haven,打着新雨伞上学也神清气爽, 因为抬头看见的总是晴空下芝加哥璀璨的夜景,让我想到路灯下潮湿的公园,和安静中sprinkling 的夜。 Kiss and fly, my Chicago on Oct 2~4th~~
    September 20

    so much fun

    开学后,学校又恢复了生机。原来有如此多的好玩的!

    I am so happy that I decided to stay here for this semester.

    September 05

    惟刀百辟 惟心不易

    若干年前学习产科的时候,书上画了各种各样的异常胎位,老师一再强调人生和正常分娩一样,只有从“胎头俯屈”开始,才能避免难产。在这场考试中,抬着头的从来就不能活着出来。这个鲜血淋漓的道理,生命从一开始就教给我们了。


    September 01

    再转

    常在因果河中走,每是眼前难看透。 果真境转见前身,何须烦恼上额头。

    August 19

    code

    0729 0809 0623 817 0818 0701 0707

    今天去了个古巴小馆子。

    August 17

    Talking about YouTube - 陳淑樺 笑紅塵

     

    Quote

    YouTube - 陳淑樺 笑紅塵
      
    August 15

    夏天

    借生日+potential japanese trip 我克服了无与伦比的laziness, 买了一个小数码,终于可以和古老笨重而费电的某照相机说byebye了,也许能提高我照相的频率。等两天照两张apartment 的照片上来。
    年初换了一个爱好种植和布置房间的室友,经历半个捡家具的黄金夏季后,我对这方面的热情也提高了,我们的居住环境因此有了显著改善,当然估计这位 American born Hugarian 和我同住半年后,对Asian women's sterotype 就被打破了。说来此人真是一个非常优秀的室友人选。
    昨晚818俱乐部的三周年聚餐人到得很齐,还挺有意思。在infinity, cadilac和BMW的诱惑下我有点想多搞搞车。
    来New Haven 以前从来没觉得夏天有多可爱,原先觉得一年四季都有烦人之处。可能就北京几个没有黄沙的春日,和没有狂风的秋天还算可以。大学里小婷多次表达了她对初夏的热爱,我都无法理解。经历了美国东北部数个长达半年的严酷冬天和凉爽湿润的夏天后,我终于彻底的同意了。以此作为送给Zoe Liu 的见面礼吧, 纪念她今天空降SF and Chicago。


    August 06

    开车去了长岛,回来的时候还去了Manhattan

    在冷泉港开了个会。

    It was quite an experience for me. I paid no attention to the gas level until my colleague and I encountered a midnight I-95 traffic jam. The car almost died on highway and eventually refused to run one-min away from a local gas station!



    July 25

    原来我室友每周做的都是匈牙利牛肉汤

    beef goulash soup 应该说闻起来很不错。

    After the improvement of Chinese railway

    I almost forget how hateful it was to take the train between my home and college, so I decide to write it down before it fades completely.

    During the 35~48 hr travel, I usually sat/stood in the crowded carriage, watched other passengers going up and down, and witnessed the train became dirtier and smellier by our litter. Soon drinkable water ran out at each carriage, and later water for toilets was also depleted by the overloaded passengers. Men started to smoke at their seats if you did not excuse them to leave. The first time I got on the train from Beijing to Fuzhou marked the beginning of these messy treks. I naively carried many heavy books, and caught a severe cold on the way. I felt so exhausted that I would die halfway to fuzhou... When my parents received me on Fuzhou station, I was alive with the cold over, but they could not recognize me even though I waved at them continuously. The worst trips usually happened before and after every spring festival, when the heaviest traffic hits the railroad.  Medical schools have shorter vacation, and it aggragates the grief. Usually it took 30 mins fight a way from the midpoint of an aisle to one end, because non-seat passengers immobilized the whole train. Once I could not push myself through the crowd to reach water or the toilet, a youth standing on the side teased me, "say 'excuse me big brother', and they will make room for you to cross!" Soon I tried and discovered what he claimed was true.  Only one winter trip made me feel I would tolerate a bigger cram: my friend Minhui and I got on the train at beijing station near midnight, and noticed that the temproray train didn't have heating, just as we had heard of.  The leaking green train with metal walls ran slowly on the dark plain throught northern china's freezing night. At 8:00 a.m. I was finally able to inhale freely and stopped worrying about becoming an ice pop.

    Summer is supposed to be less crowded and thus easier, but don't forget about nightmares before the magical torture on the train. Dealing with ticketing agencies was always annoying. I always worried a lot about the tickets, and always felt lucky if I was able to get one for home. Usually I could not get a bed ticket because there is only one train went to my hometown, which is the capital of Fujian province! To get on board, it was another humiliation for every human being. During one summer home trip, my student ID was torn because the woman at the station thought it was faked.. It costs me 40 yuan to beg a new and authentic one from the university, which innocently have the biggest share at "pseudo-certificate markets".

    Perhaps because I didn't whine much at home, my father refused to buy air tickets for me. He insisted that it is dangerous to fly, and proudly believed that it was a training process to experience the tough part of life. i was outrageous and yelled at him, "You have never taken any long-distance train, leave alone that in the busiest season, how can you be the right person to talk about 'the tough part'? Why don't you try sitting on a chair at home for 36 hrs to have a flavor? " (I wasn't very polite to my parents. At middle school, I appeared easy-going except for facing one person -- I debated with my father through almost all the lunches and dinners, probably because of my rebellious adolescence.) My outbreak changed the situation. My father started to help me get the bed ticket when I need to travel from Fuzhou to Beijing. It wasn't very easy.  After numerous trials, he finally got the a street trick from insiders and able to get a bed ticket quite often (from windows! ). (It seems I benefits a lot from the qurarel... To some extent, he was right about the training process. Yes, it was such an experience for me to cherish, not just because it was difficult: I was able to talk to many kinds of people during the boring days and nights, especially when I didn't have a bed to lie down. Some of us became friends. I guess I wouldn't have interacted with this variety of people at college if I had flown across the country.  And I was exposed to the villagers on the boundless plain in northern China, which I had got no idea about before. I also noticed that how beautiful Fujian's mountain area is, in spite of the bad traffic conditions. born and raised among 'the educated community' in a cozy city, I understood other part of my country better by traveling on the train. And as my father hoped, I could comfort myself by referring to how bad the train was, when I encountered some problems at that time. Now this function is weakened, because my good/bad memory about the trip becomes vague together.

    Rehearsing all these railroad indignities every semester, I swore that I would try to change the desparate situation in the future, either by donation, or by some other efforts. However, almost right after i left China, the railway was enormously improved without one bit of my contribution (if complaining doesn't count as contribution). Now it only takes about 20 hrs to travel between beijing and fuzhou, and there are more trains running between them. I haven't got the chance to taste the new schedule despite myself.


    关于museum of natural history

    实验室一位同事非常推崇museum of natural history, 又听小白说那儿拍过一部电影, 于是上周就和她去看了。其实这个博物馆也就算collective,并不像想像中的那样让人耳目一新。可能我太picky了,毕竟二十多年来已经去过大大小小各种科技馆海洋馆博物馆纪念馆了。 想到那个同事比我大一圈,又有两个小孩我对他的评论也就释然了。收藏标本的制作水平倒是足以让中国同行叹服,非常生动逼真,难怪可以在这里拍 night at the museum(也许这些年中国在这方面也取得了很大的突破也不可知)。

    昨晚看了看night at the museum, 比较搞怪,半夜看起来也有几分惊悚。感叹一下,很多年前,某圈功刚被取缔不久,中国出品了一部叫《宇宙与人》的科教电影。作为广大中小学生的一员,我自然也在前往瞻仰之列。且不说此片的背景和意图,就电影本身的艺术性和科学性而言,即使在多年之后重睹,也是非常出色的。由于出国过早而没有机会欣赏的朋友不妨抽空看一下这部难得的富有民族特色的科普片。

    这部电影也说明中国人依然是非常擅长总结的。一百多年来,中小学的课本总编写得严谨无比,可以反复读很多遍。以致大学时读到某些新写赶写乱写的中文教材时,常常感到反胃,也为中文感到悲哀。但是也许正因如此,因福得祸,对于现代科学这个舶来品,我们面对 incomplete data 的探索能力还远远不够,或者没有在校园内得到训练,因此影响到了整个民族的科技原创力。(说实话在社会生活的其他方面我倒是观察到了中国人无穷无尽的智慧。)

    和美国日本的基础教育相比,我觉得我所经历过的中国的教育或不够灵活散漫,或含有一些欺骗性,或不够实用,但总体上说,还是非常平等的。到大学一年级前,为你准备的所有知识都指着一条通向“光辉的顶点”的道路,每个人的领受力,偏好,以及记忆力都不同,但是这种堪称精英教育的道路却是人人有机会看到和涉足的。不会因为出身贫穷的原罪而早早关闭。

    我总觉得中小学的启蒙太关键了。虽然近来万事蹉跎,回望那两所历史超出北大多年的中学小学,我在其中也许懵懂或不开心,自认还是得到了相当完整透彻的训练,虽然没有完全消化,至今还时常感受到其中的力量。

    July 24

    authentic fuzhou food (ZZ)

    http://user.qzone.qq.com/359291723/blog/1226739886

    adapt it from my cousin's blog. These days it is hard to get an article about fuzhou cuisine with correct pics.

    New York, New York --a weekend for two tourists

    托一只大西洋上的来客的福,我终于看了 tourists' New York。

    去meet another whittette 前先见识了一下夏天傍晚的harlem 125st, 比以前凌晨转公交去LGA 机场恐怖多了。因为预报说有雷雨,我们没有去中央公园的音乐会 (天气却很正常。。。)饭后特意坐上跨过east river的airtram. 向小白蹭了一晚w7x street 的hotel, 是我在美国住过的最简陋的旅馆了,见识了古老的需要向外拉门才能进去的电梯,还碰到了来自"a brother country, not just neighbor" 的receptionist, 我和小白因此分别获得香蕉一只.

    American museum of natural history还不错, 下部电影准备看night at the museum

    在macy's 逛了一会。how tourist-like we are!

    因为没法搞到上女神之冠的票, 我们坐上staten island ferry, 远远的看了statue of liberty 和brooklyn bridge.

    再逛华尔街。

    晚上去了empire state building。 结论是:队伍很长, 夜景很璀璨, 洪鹏同学是我们基01旅游系统优秀的纽约地陪兼摄影,我和小白在他的指导下都玩的开心极了。可惜我把他仅有的那一张高楼夜游图照花了。。。

    然后便是我们漫长的暗夜地铁之旅。

    在纽约的川菜韩国墨西哥越南饭馆吃了饭,居然都想不起名字了。this is the aging effect.  需要写所以需要写游记。还喝了一种奇怪的cider. 买了很多水果,回到New Haven, 由于没有找希望中的wheel chair, 我们只逛了校园。我们还错过了campus tour, 我只好又在这个英国人面前班门弄斧了一下。英国人的敦促终于唤醒了我遥远的回忆,于是做了一餐晚饭。


    July 14

    天上的星星和地上的萤火虫

    hiking 3小时归来。天黑了,傍晚的云似乎都不见了。有点后悔今天没有去天文馆看星星。一两个月来,每个周二都下雨或阴天。

    前两天第一次见到了萤火虫。按说我小时候还挺亲近大自然的,为什么就没见过呢?福州有萤火虫吗?