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October 25 How to achieve balance?Is equilibrium only a point of time, not a process? I believe so; at least my recent weeks here provide vivid evidence. Cannot remember since when I did not play tennis, did not go to Shad (gym), did not go sailing, nor rowing, nor jogging, nor step challenge. We becomes confused because of too many options. There are so many great lectures/presentations to attend; section parties begin to flurish; damn mid-terms to prepare (esp. that I did not study at all in the past months). Sometimes even nitty-gritty things will take away most of my daytime. When one becomes a follower of his/her schedule, not vice versa, he/she becomes the slave of calendar. Low-energy, depression, tiredness are all symptoms of the "calendar slave".
Today, I kicked out all the events on my calendar. I went to cardiokicks! Shad, I am back, finally. It feels awesome after one-hour exercise. That is life. That is what I should prioritize on my list. There's always work to do, presentation to attend, books to read, research to conduct. But I have been doing that for the past three years!! Why keep doing it now?? Relax, relax, relax... and enjoy every single moment in our life ;-)
October 23 FBI Negotiation Skills talkNot as many audience as I thought; neither was the content. The woman agent focused solely on the extreme situations, e.g., kidnap in Iraq, though it is understandable coz it is her daily job. What impressed me most is when she said, American government won't give up a single life. Let's put aside how true it is in reality. But it did sound touching to me, as long as people can be so outspoken on it and never hesitate to iterate on the value of individual. Suddenly, I envy those Americans, for the first time. It reminds me of my overreaction in the TOM class the other day. I was little bit offended by people relating safety to productivity. I pointed out the social responsibility of a company to care about the individual life. Think of those poor miners in interior China. Do their lives cheaper than ours? Why nobody cares about who they are, whether their families can go on without him, the husband, the bread earner? Is it because we have too many people? Then how many is too many?
After the talk, my section mate, who once went through the FBI training, said Isreali values their people even more than Americans. They would start a war to rescue one life. I can understand it. When a whole country has to fight for their existence, all they can do is to fight for every single life, at whatever expense.
Are all men created equal? I used to think it is true, at least on paper. How about in reality? What can we do? Does Luck realy matter? Do I have to feel thankful that I am lucky in some sense? October 22 Ballet in Boston - Don QuixoteWent to see a classical ballet of Don Quixote on Friday night in the Wang Theatre. The ballet talk in Harvard aroused my interest in ballet, esp. my best friend here is an expert in ballet appreciation and highly recommended me of the Don Quixote. Guess Don Quixote is more well-known as the hero in the book than a ballet, for most of us. The ballet is based on one story in the book. Of coz, it usually falls into a romantic or heart-breaking stories on stage. This time, it is the former. The story is simple: a father wanna marry his daughter, Kitri, to an old rich man; however, Kitri fell in love with a poor young man, Bacilio, from their village. In the end, the loved couple fleed together, in search of their true love. Body language is magic. I never thought the story can flow so smoothly without a single word. The stage is splendid, bringing us back to the 17th century Spain. The dresses are splendid too. Maybe that's the essence of classical ballet, perfectionism. The only regret is the musical part, not as impressive as I expected. Anyway, it is my first time watching a complete ballet masterpiece. It opened my eyes to another means of aethetic expression. Beauty lies in the eye of appreciators.
A few words of the Wang Theatre. It located in downtown Boston and is the home of Boston Ballet and other performing arts of Boston. Wang reminds me of somebody Chinese. It is very rare to hear a renowned building named after a Chinese name. Finally I found out that Wang An, the owner of former Wang An Computer Co., has donated to renovate the art centre. It is named after him thereafter. Feel kind of proud ;-)
p.s., got a parking ticket last night. It was raining heavily and the sign was almost unseeable due to the tree. However, life completed...
October 19 Carly Fiorina - Tough Choices (Tough woman)I think I need to write down my take-aways from yesterday's Carly Fiorina speech before I forgot them during this harsel season. Ms. Fiorina held a speech on her new book (more like a marketing har?), Tough Choices - a Memoir. I didn't quite like her, mainly based on what I read and heard from the media. Controversial merger with Compaq, dramatic organizational change within HP, ignorance of printing business... Anyone can go on with this list from public critics, ending with another headline "Fiorina got fired by the Board in 2005". To me, she was a failure in leadership/career. However, listening to how this controversial person talking about her own story, her opions and her explanations changed my view dramatically.
In a word, I start to like her. She is direct, genuine, cynical and thoughtful. Above all, she gets the character, and the presence. This early fifties lady soon caught people's attention by walking into the spotlight, elegantly dressed and shining smiling. Here are some notes from her speech that I would like to share:
The whole speech was impressive. It made me believe Americans are not only good at paraphrazing and BSing; they can be concise and insightful, very. Although I do not fully agree her comment back on Financial Times and Wall Street Journal critics (no wonders why medias were so harsh on her, just a mirorring of her attitude towards the media). In this aspect of directness, I share my own weakness with her. She told me in person at the bookstore, that she chose to be herself, whichever means good or bad. But over the years, I learnt that diplomatic just can work better than being wholy direct. The challenge then comes how to maintain your character/opinion while being diplomatic the same time. Very enlightening moment in my months here.
October 04 Rowing & SailingI used to think these are the two things I have to experience in Boston
but didn't expect the experience came so quickly ;-)
Sailing was my first try
The MIT Pavilion is located 2 stations away from HBS
I was envying people on those white sails under the blue sky and in the dizzying sun (while playing tennis right across the Memorial Dr.)
Luckily, I didn't fall into the Charles in my first sailing, although our boat was 65% flip-over
Unfortunately, I didn't make my debut complete by not jumping into the water
Life is full of contradictions ;-P
One can feel the total freedom, in the breeze, facing to the skyscrapers in downtown boston, watching traffics passing by the Longfellow/Harvard bridge
All others are living in rules; but we are not
We are living in the wind, in the sun, in ourselves
Before I got myself in that little canoe, I thought rowing was easier than sailing, at least you've got the blades on hands
Nothing turns out to be easy for the first time
Should I be pround of myself not falling into the river? (thought several time I almost would)
Learning by practicing, that's the golden rule applying everywhere
When I feel I have the control of the blades, the direction, and the balance, I now get the time to enjoy the lives on water
Ducks are definitely better swimmers than us. Here is their hometown
Birds fly by right above the water
Old couple chatting on the bank bench
Passengers stop by, taking pictures of the scene
Here, I am the obersever, not the actor
Life looks different from a different angle ;-)
p.s., blogging in English is so different from an essay or case writing. My English sucks in the former way. How can I be the Harbus Rep? Maybe I need to make a change, introducing a Chinese version to our School's newspaper, like the emerging Chinese ATM menus in the US ;-P
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