i moved to amsterdam last friday, and i had a wonderful weekend there: because i am lazy, and Qi-qi is good at writing. Please find out what i did and why the weekend was terrific in Qi-qi's blog: http://xueyunqi.blogspot.com/
^&^
need to work on my PhD: my current question is: how to separate the effects of institutions and culture on corruption respectively? Anyone?
Ingredients:
Fishy is an old friend of mine...and the kind of friend that I jumped to my feet when I heard from her, after not hearing from each other for 5 years. She is even in UK now...how kind is fate to me... I still remembered how much fun we had playing together in the school basketball team as well as the threesome basketball competition, how we lost the school volleyball chiampionship and cried together with the runner-up, and laughed together for the runner-up in "badminton double female"...
Besides sport, we performed on stage dance as well as sketches and English plays together and how funny it was that we both ended up playing the male roles as we were both considered so cool kind of boyish(more a lack of male supply in our college), yet how we both liked guitar so much and crazy about boys who played great guitar...
Dear Fishy, though the deadline is hanging up there, threatening, I am still taking the time to wish you a happy birthday-because your happiness would make me feel simply good! And the more, the merrier...^&^
In Lin Yutang's "My Country, My People", I quote him, "WE do not know a nation until we know its pleasures of life, just as we do not know a man until we know how he spends his leisure. It is when a man ceases to do the things he has to do, and does the things he likes to do, that his character is revealed"
This paragraph appealed to me a lot at first. At second thought, however, I would rather distinguish 2 types of people: the first type of people would not be explained by Lin in the above paragraph, because they rarely do things that they have to do. They typically neither follow the crowd nor subordinate to hierarchies and hypocracies to benefit more from others or they simply are very responsive and fast-adapting to the enviroment. Rather, they are the fighters in a heroic way. They take initiatives to change realities. Most of this type of people would be of "failers" in the common point of view, however great souls. After all, the very few among this group who has succeeded implementing the changes become great minds to survive in history. The second type is the soul survivers. They freeride on the society as much as they can, either because of limited capability or low willingness. Most of this group will be "successful" people who climb fast in hierarchies or successful in the sense that they never have too much troubles. The ones who "fail" in this group are the ones who are either rebellions or have too little education to earn well.
Do you agree with me or not? ^&^
