Peaceful Garden

Win hearts

2009-06-21T01:14:00.004-10:00

B: Win hearts! A quick survey: where did you hear about this word?
A: Military!
B: Bingo! And? (Expecting the situation such as the male winning heart of the female or vice versa)
A: Confucius Institutes!
B: Huh? Interesting.

All the disaster relief actions done by the military is a form of winning hearts, nationally or internationally. Though according the humanitarian principles military is against the “neutrality” and is a big debate about whether the military can be called as humanitarians, it’s cruel to take away the credit of humanitarian actions done by military. Military’s priority purpose is to win heart. I can say that the Chinese military has been doing a great job in disaster relief, and the stories such as soldiers saving lives regardless their own security, building tents day and night without considering its own family, etc become the familiar stories at the dinner table, and people do appreciate them a lot.
The humanitarian action of military can definitely win people’s heart.

Confucius institutes (CI) wins hearts? I am not surprised.
Already heard whole a lot critics about Confucius Institutes’ fast growing and winning heart is one of the strategic purpose. First of all, Confucius is a great philosopher and teacher in history, and somehow, the philosophy is rooted inside of the Chinese people, even not everyone values his words in this modernized world, the virtues are still valued. Unfortunately in reality the CI is merely about the language without any Confucius value or philosophy. It intentionally doesn't want to add its value and philosophy for modernization is the theme. When CI namely uses the ancient philosopher Confucius’ title without his philosophy, it creates a room to be criticized in the bipolar international political environment and the Heart Winning Round I is actually lost. However, all the teachers sent from CI are innocent, and highly qualified and educated; it will be a great opportunity to win the hearts. Just hope the teachers from CI do carries a great value of Confucius so that the heart winning Round II can be accomplished. At last, the scholarship offered by CI for the international world is amazingly generous and it wins hearts in a tremendous way in this Round III.
Thus, in this case, the teachers from CI are the key of winning hearts. Pray for them as you are following me. ( I believe they all are awesome teachers!)

Okay, so let’s talk about dating in terms of winning heart.
Huh?
If you think dating is a situation of winning or losing heart, the chance of winning is supernaturally low for:
One . - you are a player and it's a game for you.
Two. - you are a not a mature player for you play too serious.
-- Joke … please relax, period.

Education? Propaganda?

2009-06-07T01:18:00.003-10:00

Education or propaganda?

These two concepts have been fighting in my mind for a long time.

From 0 to 100 as a ruler of measuring the truthfulness of information, education stands at 100, propaganda locates at 50, while at the far end 0 there sits the brainwash.

The outcome of the ideal education should be creativity, while propaganda won’t be necessarily invoking the sparkle of creation.

Though education is ideally good as we all are brainwashed to believe in education. In reality, most of the education is company with instructor’s belief as a way of propaganda. In another word, the pure 100% education is not possible, unless the learner is highly logical.

Interestingly, propaganda in English is codified with negative meaning, while in Chinese (mainland China) it carries merely positive meaning. I can associate propaganda with marketing, creative arts, and this is the first time comparing the difference between propaganda and education.

Clear mind is needed to distinguish brainwash from education. Even this blog entry, it is an education outcome for me; and it might be a form of brainwash for the readers.
:)

Folk or Classical?

2009-05-26T23:26:00.005-10:00

What is folk dance?
Don't you ever consider folk dance as rural people's dance?
Is it done by the rural people as opposed to urban people, or the dance done by the uneducated opposed to educated, or non-literate opposed to literate, or poor opposed to rich, or lower class opposed to upper class, or primitive opposed to industrial?

What is classical dance？
Is Hula a classical dance or folk dance?
Whether it's folk or classical, it's all the labels and perspectives from people.
Hula is absolutely a royal classical dance for the Hawaiian people, but probably folk dance for lots of other peoples.

Like I have been considering the Tibetan dance as a form of folk dance for long time, but didn't even realize I actually didn't have that ownership of the Tibetan culture, nor the authority to proclaim I can do the Tibetan dance.

Dangerous labels! Whether folk or classical, we just can't stop making an order in the world and categorizing the world in a functional way, but some how we may need to think twice before labeling.

Chinese government should invest some form of the festival for Tibetan Dance competition as an empowerment and nurturing for the culture of Tibetan people.
:P

Choose the one you want ... or

2009-03-19T10:36:00.003-10:00

In one of my classes, we were asked to write a paper of case study analysis. Dr.C read the four cases aloud briefly in the classroom:

1. A 12 yrs old child with deaf impairment from Japan living her with family in Oahu, with difficulty at home, neighbour and school.
2. A 10 yrs old Hawaiian Samoan kid with severe mental disorder living at the Big Island, with difficulty at school.
3. A young adult from Micronesian family, with the prolonged depression and extreme mood swings studying at the UH Manoa, and this young adult also fell in love with the neighbour with the same gender.
4. A middle age veteran soldier returning from the third tour of Iraq, with physical injury and traumatic brain injury.

After Dr.C reading all the cases, she asked us to choose one we wanted. Four cases, eight paper copies were distributed from Dr.C to the classroom, and we were told to choose it democratically.

I rated those cases in my head when Dr.C was reading:
- The Japanese culture is close to Chinese culture which is what I am familiar with;
Rate: 3, great chance,
- The Hawaiian Samoan child is really where I am curious about since I am living at the center of the pacific islands;
Rate: 5, probably will pick up this one.
- The young adult mental development and woman study are part of the area I am curious about;
Rate: 4, not a bad choice
- The veteran soldier with Africa-American heritage seems like the most foreign and challenging one.
Rate: 2, this is way too foreign.

By just listening to the cases, I was already overwhelmed by the tough situations and hoped it's not real case. Subconsciously, I decided for the Hawaiian Samoan case since somehow I could learn and seek the local community nearby.

Meanwhile, the class entered into a discussion about the possibility of the forth case. Some of my classmates commented that "no way for an African-American veteran back from Iraq without a job" and "it did not make sense."

By the time I almost picked up the Hawaiian Samoan case, one of my classmates, A, said that she didn't have any preference and would love to let those who felt strong about the case they wanted to choose first.
"Me neither, would love to be the last to choose." I answered, and put down the case I almost picked up.
Dr.C commented that we were socialist.
Big laugh.

Thanks for A's reminding to be humble, courteous, and to be the last.
Yet, it's always lucky to have a chance to choose,
but is that really important to choose,
or it is just happier to see other people chose the right one he/she really wanted?
Somehow, it's just so easy to be running in front of everyone, without the second thought of other people's choices.

At least, there is a great peace, when I got the case I rated the least.

Straw Tower - team play

2009-03-17T21:23:00.003-10:00

Have you ever played the straw tower game? It's a remarkable team team game, and it sparkles me to think about the team work.

We were separated into five teams to play the Straw Tower.
Game rule:
Given two bags of straws, two tapes, each team with 4 - 5 people was signed to build a tower as TALL as possible in 10 MINUTES.

By the time the rule was explained, we started.

I gave a structure of two straws taped together, for it's bendable straw and the tape can make the straw stronger and more stable, while S. gave another structure of one straw inserted into another. Without second thought, I gave up my idea and followed with S's structure, for the goal is the height in a limited amount of time. So both S. and I started inserting one straw into another and producing the straw strings. In the mean while, team member A gave an idea of making a basement of the tower so that the tower will stand without falling. We were all supportive to the basement. I didn't know who took the strings I made or where the strings were put on that tower. At the end, we won (otherwise, I wouldn't write this entry).

The tower was not good looking at all, but it stood on the ground with a significant height among the teams.

Do we have a team leader?

There wasn't enough time to elect a team leader. Actually, the whole team seemed like working as a "chaos". S and I started two structures at the same time, the basement work seemed like taping trashes together and it's accomplished at the last second. The leader might be the conception of "making the tower as tall as possible", and the team work really was like a programming team fighting for the project deadline.

After the game, we were actually not that bad, and honestly quite successful. There was a creative tower made in an artistic way but can not stand on the ground; there was an extremely stable tower with the fantastic triangle structure but short for its height; there was also another chaos tower similar to ours but lost at the height.

What makes a good team?

1. Team leader? Yes, if it's for long term, the leadership is very important. Though different field has different perspectives signed to a leader, in general, a leader has to be respected among the team members.

2. Contributors - They are doing the mechanical work, but they are the foundation of the team.

3. Communicator? It's very important. In this case, as a contributor, honestly I had no idea how long should one string be like, while A, as the communicator, helped me to determine the vision of the string length. If it's not her, I might just keep making the string longer than enough, while forgetting the goal is to make the tower, not the long string.

4. Collaborator? They were the ones taping the strings together AND stable them with straws.

So many to say about this game.

The team work is about playing the role whole-heartedly, be creative as it's allowed, and be compromising when it's needed.

Money and Toy

2009-02-23T12:04:00.004-10:00

The other day, I was babysitting for the Family Bible study. Basically, it’s a Bible study where parents gather and study the Holy Bible, while all the bachelors who are free on Saturday experience the real family life. My job is to make sure all of babies and children are happily enjoying the time without parents. Here comes the story:

One of the babies (let’s say, Baby A) wanted a toy far away from him and he wanted it so much that he had to cry to address his demand. With his eyes and pointing finger, I got the toy for him. Immediately, he stopped crying. Then there came another older child (let’s say, Baby B), took away the toy and ran to the other room. As expected, the Baby A started crying again and I went to get the toy back, but by the time I got the toy, the mom already shown up and the baby was back with a big smiley face.

Toy is actually not the issue, and Mom’s love is the key of turning the situation.

Toy to a baby is like the money/possession to a grownup. We might be easily depressed by the budget cut, the bear markets, the jobless, or the financial crisis, and the faith in policy and/or faith in God can reinforce the grownups remain calm and peaceful.

How much faith do we have? How much do we trust our governments? How well the stimulus package will be reinforced in this crisis?

Though the grown-ups are way more complicated than babies at brain activity level – we are way harder to be pleased comparing with the babies - the faith reinforcement from the trustworthy level of Paddling and Love is definitely helpful during the time when the toy or possession is taken away.

Some verses to read if you believe in the Bible.
Hebrews 13:3
Hebrews 13:5
Proverbs 16:33
Proverbs 19:21
Psalms 33:10
Isaiah 46:10
2 Corinthians 1:1-11
2 Corinthians 1:8-9
1 Thessalonians 5:18
The whole book of Job

Trouble shooting : Laptop

2009-01-26T15:56:00.004-10:00

Symptom:
My laptop works fine without AC adapter. It acts retarded with AC Adapter connected.
It works fine after putting a book on the one side of the AC adapter, so with some weights on the AC adapter, the laptop works fine.

Diagnosis:
Motherboard problem (common problem in the same series)
or
AC adapter problem (potential cause for the motherboard problem).

Test 1:
to see whether it's the problem from ac adapter.
-> Change a new AC Adapter.

If Test 1 works, hallelujah.

If test 1 fails,
Test 2:
to see whether it's the motherboard's problem or the combination.
-> Ship the laptop to the factory.
It will cost another 2 weeks to say hallelujah.

Pray for the motherboard of my laptop.
:)

Possessed by the "hacker", what's the next?

2009-01-17T13:19:00.011-10:00

A friend was “possessed“ by a hacker, in both hotmail account and facebook account. The hacker attacked friend's hotmail and Facebook account to send messages about his difficult situation in China, as well as asking for money. The message also mentioned that now he (my friend possessed by the hacker) has been working with a program called “Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and lack of Education”, with the bank account in Western Union associated with the address in China.

It's obvious that this friend is hacked. After searching the Google with the keyword of this program, it’s easy to find out this is just an old skin game someone from Nigeria successfully used years ago. The address the hacker offered is a business building in a downtown of a city in China, without specific room or office number. It's very possible that the name the hacker offered at Western Union can be also phony. Later on, after the hacker's identity was revealed on Facebook, he gave us his real attention was to get some money and buy the software he could not afford.

So it’s obviously a skin game but it’s annoying. First it’s about China’s well-known situation; second it’s directly harming my friends and friends’ friends’ security at the social network online; third it’s also an adorable hacker for he is still trying to get the help to get the copyrighted software instead of buying the pirate ones at the booth on the street in China(if what he said is true). He has been handled to the "cyber police", and his IP address will be traced. If the hacker was using public wireless, which is accessible in most of hotels, coffee shops and libraries, he is harder to be found, unless there was video camera caught him in the tape. Also, with the Proxy tools assisting, the hacker could protect his real physical location very easy if he planed ahead. From the information he offered, this should be a very sophisticated hacker and he planed everything ahead of time. So, Good luck with the tracings, "cyber police".

Now, back to the point, if all are a annoying trick, here is what we can do:
protect ourselves, pray for the computer scientists education and peace education and love the hacker.

1. Password protection
It's common that we use only one password in all of our accounts during the whole life and it's not safe. We may need to protect the online accounts with a more complicated password and change the password every other week if you think your account's stolen might be affecting a number of people, specially with the Facebook and web 2.0 exaggerating the effect. Also, please do NOT store your password online, for where you store the password might also be hacked. Write it on a piece of paper or memorize it in your head, then mark certain dates of changing password on the calendar. It's just a way of protecting yourself, as well as your online network. The more important you are, the more people you might be affecting, and the more complicated your password should be like, as well as the more frequent you might need to think about changing the password.

2. Do not add random software/ applications on Facebook.
Applications are attempting since they the tremendous tools to make the online socializing easier, but here is the reason why we'd better say no for applications. Application is the third party apart from Facebook. Your personal information might be collected by this third party, for developing the application, updating the application, marketing or commercial reasons. Now imagine this third party is attacked and all your personal information is exposed to the hacker, which is not bad, and the worst part is when the hacker is using the high speed calculating software to decode your password and access your important online account, banking account , social networking accont, or even email, it might be a bigger headache. This is just one example of how hackers work with web 2.0. Thus, to protect ourselves and friends, let's just be more protective at the password.

Here is an article about the facebook starter in how to start saftly, personally I think it covers most of the security issues about the facebook using and it's worthy to read.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2263&tag=rbxccnbzd1

3. Then, don't forget to set up your privacy as high as possible, sepcially in front of the strangers.
Here are the steps: After Login to facebook, at the top-right of the Facebook page, move your mouse on the “Settings” button, a menu will be dropped down, then click “Privacy Settings“, then the "Privacy" page will show up. Now click “Search” to set up who can find you and what kind of information can be found by the strangers. It's just let yourself less exposed to the unknown network. But if you want to be "popular" and be found by the random peoples, do NOT be too strict in the privacy settings, for you may also miss the chance of new relationship or connection by doing so.
It's open social and the innocent users are vulnerable.

4. Last, after preparing for the password, privacy settings, we are ready to go and love the hacker (if you are computer savvy, please do this step if you know some hackers email address/ facebook account. But this is not recommended for the starter.) It’s like offering another chick after got hit once.
What we can do now:
1. Pray for the hacker. (If you believe the Prayer)
2. Love the hacker.
Again, do NOT do the things below if you are NOT a computer savvy.
This friend/hacker is already deleted from all, but we can still search and find this "friend" by searching the friend's name. The friend/hacker will be shown on the top of your list if he was your friend before. What you can do is to "add him as a friend" or to "send him message". Please don't execute the former option, ut do send the hacker a message, a verse of love, or a willingness of offering help.

Good luck, friends, victims and hackers!

siren... out of focus

2008-12-30T12:57:00.006-10:00

when 18% of the world population is illiterate ,
here we rush into another age of mass intelligence.

Rationally speaking, I might be out of focus...^_^

Noah's Ark Replica by Huibers

2008-12-13T12:47:00.003-10:00

Good cubit !

----

The Dutch creationist Johan Huibers of Schagen, the Netherlands has built a massive replica of Noah’s Ark.

Johan’s ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high, and 20 cubits wide, which approximates two-thirds of a football field in length and three stories tall in height. As big as it is, it is only 1/5 the size of the original Ark, which was 300 cubits long, 30 cubits high, and 50 cubits wide.

Website:
http://www.arkvannoach.com/nieuw/

A Bible Study:How big is Noah's Ark
http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/sizeark.html

Answers in Genesis: Johan Huibers and His Ark
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v2/n2/netherland-ark

AOL News: Working Replica of Noah’s Ark Opens (with Pictures)
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/working-replica-of-noahs-ark-opens/20070428184909990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

BBC News: Dutchman builds modern Noah’s Ark
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4853890.stm

CBN:

Replica of Noah’s Ark Opens to Public

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/147622.aspx

Dutch Town Sports Noah’s Ark Replica (with Video)

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/148994.aspx

CNN: New Noah’s Ark ready to sail
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/04/28/dutch.ark.ap/index.html

Sydney Morning Herald: Dutchman’s biblical mission
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/dutchmans-biblical-mission/2006/03/30/1143441257033.html?page=fullpage

Beloved earth

2008-12-07T21:42:00.004-10:00

The Beloved earth might be choked,
by a series of earthquake.

Latest Earthquakes in the World - Past 7 days
Volcanic Haze over Hawai'i

ETEC 645 - Future Education: Open Content & Open Mind (major points)

2008-11-28T14:37:00.015-10:00

Future Education: Open Content & Open Mind (Major Points with References)

Lulu Liu, ETEC 645 - Fall -12/05/08

This article will discuss about the future education as a contribution for the online course in ETEC645.

As my own understanding, the open content is a concept of equal opportunity of accessing educational materials, while open mind is an ideal way for educators to treat each single student as a special individual without exclusivity.

1. Open Content

1) What is Open Content?

2) Open content = Free Content ? No.

3) What kind of license for the open content?

4) What other resources about the Open Content?

2. Inclusive Education V.S. Special Education

In general, special education is for the students with disabilities. It’s an educational treatment for minority/ students with special needs. Here, there are three points for future education.

1) Pay more attention to the words we are using, especially the "special education".
2) Inclusive Education: special education for everyone

3) Technology, as a support for students with special needs, can support the inclusive education to normalize every single student as a special one.

3. Technology for Education, not the other way around.
4. Comments on the Open content in China

Is open content ready for China?

- No yet. Open content not the best choice for the general public in China, since the education level of the majority is still below the world average and the lack of faith in the public may cause a uncivilized chaos. It is a long way to go before the content open. But it's good to dry to bridge the inequality of the society with the technology and information support. In another word, to avoid the public chaos and better educational environment, a moderated censorship is necessary for China.

It positive for the international medias to accelerate this open content movement in China, but more importantly, above content and mind, the open the souls first. Content can be bad, when the soul is lost.

With an emerging of technology, the vision of future education is the education with the equal access to open content education materials, and inclusive education addressing theh special treatment for every single student.

Open content, and more importantly, open mind.

Reference:

Sullivan, J. K. (July, 2008). Education faculty to make articles available to all. Stanford Report, July 9, 2008. http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/july9/access-070908.html.

Liang, L. (2004). A Guide to Open Content Licenses. Piet Zwart Institute. http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide .

Davies, B., West-Burnham, J. (2003). Handbook of Educational Leadership and Management. P693. Published by Pearson Education. ISBN 0273656686, 9780273656685.

Vygotskiĭ, L.S., Cole, M., and John-Steiner, V. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Published by Harvard University Press, 1978 ISBN 0674576292, 9780674576292

Laun, C. (June, 2008). 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner. College at Home Blog. http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2008/06/10/100-helpful-web-tools-for-every-kind-of-learner/ .

Down To the Earth

2008-11-24T22:51:00.009-10:00

Down To the Earth, an attitude of loving life.

Like the hug to a Bird with Flu,
for you got the poinson, I got the remedy,

Give All Thanks to God with Dances,
for the liars
and narcissus,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb-73iU6ubQ

trash categorization

2008-11-24T21:51:00.012-10:00

Dream is good:

------------------
A bottle of chemistry,
For the man's age of 70,
Since I want to see him in the heaven,
And wondering whether God cares about his family
But the nature hesitates me from using or dumping;

Now I see the Heaven and Hell is actually a neighbor of zero point one degree,
And our heavens mean good but may sound as a hell for the age of 70.

Chemistry belongs to an agency.
and to love the soul of birds in the air and ants on the street.
and to dump the drash in the category.

Business is business

2008-11-24T00:10:00.002-10:00

When you study the language Chinese, you may be told that never saying no directly to a Chinese, instead, using perhaps/ maybe/ thinking about it later to be polite and respectful for the culture.

Yes, it’s hard to be “business is business”, for in China, business is also with relationships.
In Mandarin, it says, 对事不对人. (dui4 shi4 bu2 dui4 ren2)

Unfortunately, in China, (traditionally) all the business is hard to be only business without personal relationships.
And it makes a perfect sense that for (traditional) Chinese, it's hard to say no, as the rejection of the issue might be taken personal.
So, saying no in a soft way, with "maybe" / "perhaps" / "thinking about it later" is an ambiguous disagreement on the business table in China.

Don't be frustrated by that culture if you are from Europe (traditional), for that's the way of the unique communication in Ancient Asian culture.
It just represents a moderate attitude of saving your face in the public for the sake of achieving harmony while resisting conflict.
So, if there is a direct “no” hitting your face, it may interpret as a death penalty, if the person doesn't know or consider the western way of communication at all.

Adding into that, Chinese turns more into confronting business and person together, especially when it comes into conflict.
If there is neither Love nor Faith nor Respect in the communication, a “death penalty” is very easily to be made.

Thus, can we (Chinese) really confront the issue rather than the person, when there is a disagreement, discouragement, or even an attack?
Can we still remain Loving for those who are trying to destroy, steal or kill?
( -- Absolutely, we can, and we should, for Love Redeems. )

It is funny, before, when people jumped in front of me (I'm Chinese) and showed something disagreeable, I would turn to be "aggressive", which means either I would convince them mine was better for this and that (very preachy), or give an absolutely cold look (typical blessed child). Ironically, I called myself a soul lover, which proved I was just one of those hypocrites.

Reading the Bible, we were commanded to Love.
Reading the Words from Confucius, we were told we would be absolutely "agreeable at the age of 60th".
(-- Bible is a hard core to make a person look old.)

So, all communication based on Love will be a success Communication.
Love, is the Power, shaped well, spiritually and scientifically makes sense, crossing cultures;
Love, is for all the Souls; no matter the soul is with what color or nationality or faith;
Love, is a progress of learning to be gentle and forgiving;
Love, is from an absolute pure heart, with single mind, loving words and gentle open-armed gesture.

Biz is biz, and we'd better not take it personal, if it is with a traditional European.
Biz is biz, and we'd never say no directly to a traditional Chinese, for “perhaps yes” can be a better way to save there face.
When culture is mixed, we'd better be an agreeable Soul Lover.

Biz is hard to be biz in this post modern new age, we'd communicate with Respect and Loving all Souls.

Thanks for the Strange Stranger

2008-11-24T00:07:00.008-10:00

Keep running into random people, with love and care.
As I was told, it's the Symptom of being overflowed by the Love from Above.
:D

-------------------------

Thanks for the Strange Stranger,
Showing me the elegance of the fat from fish,
and the importance of the omega three,

Thanks for the Strange Stranger,
Giving me a perfect reason why vegetarians crave for tofu and nuts fatty,
and the flax seeds on the shelf at costco for my mind and body,

Thanks for the strange stranger,
making me feel I am even loved and cared,
by random people in my life.

Thanks for the strange stranger.

combined the blog

2008-11-20T16:24:00.010-10:00

Blogs are combined, lead by One Loving Spirit,
Powerless doubt, broken in front Aloha,
Stories are republished, without weary,
Meditation and dream, like a giant combination,
Keep blessing n' loving, from that 6000 miles away Family.

http://www.youtube.com/v/EkHTsc9PU2A
Love the Sky...

Google health - open content starts from health?

2008-11-20T14:14:00.004-10:00

Google health - open content starts from health?
https://www.google.com/health/p/

Google flu trend:
http://www.google.org/flutrends/

From the friend of God to Enterprise

2008-11-18T18:34:00.010-10:00

to boldly sit in a basement
Originally uploaded by Genista

Friend of the world = the enemy of God ->
(Here, world means the comfort, luxury and materials)
So being friend of the God = Not the enemy of God = Not friend of the world = Not chasing for comfort, luxury or materials. ->
For us, it means to lead a life simple, without luxury, avoiding waste ->

Yes, simplicity and details are God ->

It reminds me the Life at the Enterprise in the Star Trek, since everything is basic life support system on the ship.
--- I bet no crews (or at most one out of a hundred) from Enterprise can be the enemy of God, for the simple and detailed life on the Space Ship with a good leadership well demonstrates the meaning of being a friend of God.

------------------------------------
Finally got one of the presentation slide done,
and the Star Trek seems always my inspiration.

Duck Tales Inflation Lesson

2008-11-18T17:28:00.000-10:00

Duck Tales Inflation Lesson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_LWQQrpSc4
Cute lesson.

Hanging out in East Asian Languages

2008-11-16T19:17:00.001-10:00

Just found out there is no this word in East Asian languages:
Hanging out.

Rethinking about the behavior, cultures and languages.

roaring

2008-11-16T17:09:00.001-10:00

They think I'm on
Drug but I am just overlaid by the
Love from Above.

Staring at the Sun

2008-11-13T15:19:00.019-10:00

Sun,
Staring, at the It,
Burned,
With passion.

:D

(the sunset part was taken in 2005 and the rest were taken recently)

video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSTeImKYetk
lyrics:
http://www.mutemathweb.com/lyrics/stareatthesun.htm

Stare at the Sun Pictures taken by Lulu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at artemispeace.blogspot.com.

vitamin research products

2008-11-12T17:53:00.003-10:00

Met a funny guy in CBTL, nagging me about omega 3 and fish oil while I am into the vegetarianism.
So got a resource from him:
http://vrp.com/

Thanks for the kindness but sorry, I do not need this.
:D ... <3

Seraphim for the rumors

2008-11-11T12:47:00.014-10:00

1. how girls/guys bully?
Rumors.
Woman/Men bullies in a psychological way:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51829
People call that as psychological warfare...

2. How to stop rumors:
Rumor control: http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/rumor_control/
Stop Rumors: http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Rumors
Responding to Rumors: http://www.chacocanyon.com/pointlookout/020424.shtml
--- Not really applicable, but has some similar strategy to borrow from.

3. Finally:
read Economist to be a better person,
or to be "truemor" teller.

----------------------------------

Hopefully, Seraphim are around,
forgive the rumor teller ,
and make a peace world.

A Herbalist's Manual

2008-11-10T15:21:00.009-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhPUzgfBoS8

Jay Chou, a Taiwanese pop song singer and writer, obsessed for the Chinese culture.
This is a song about the Herbalist's Manual.

Overall, it's a great song, with some sense of renaissance.
Somehow, it's also very inspiring for me. :P

Video is not as good as the song, and it seems like he is playing a savior's role in this MTV.

曲：周杰倫
Qu : Zhou Jie Lun
Music: Jay Chou

詞: 方文山
Ci : Fang Wen Shan
Lyrics: Vincent Fang

Translation: sesamestreet - www.jay-chou.net

如果華佗再世　
Ru guo Hua Tuo zai shi
If Hua Tuo were still alive

祟洋都被醫治
Chong yang dou bei yi zhi
Worshiping of foreign cultures would be healed

外邦來學漢字　
Wai bong lai xue han zi
Foreigners coming to learn Chinese characters

激發我民族意識
Ji fa wo min zu yi shi
Stimulates my national consciousness

馬錢子 | 決明子 | 蒼耳子 | 還有蓮子
Ma qian zi | Que ming zi | Can er zi | Hai you lian zi
Strychnos, Cassia seed, Xanthii, and Lotus Seed

黃藥子 | 苦豆子 | 川楝子 | 我要面子
Huang yao zi | Ku dou zi | Chuan lian zi | Wo yao mian zi
Rhizoma Dioscoreae Bulbiferae, Sophora alopecuroides, Fructus Toosendan, I want to save face

用我的方式改寫一部歷史
Yong wo de fang shi gai xie yi bu li shi
Using my own approach to rewrite a part of history

沒什麼別的事　跟著我唸幾個字
Mei shen mo bie de shi…gen zhe wo nian ji ge zi
This is not something special… follow me in uttering a few words

山藥~當歸~枸杞~ go
Shan yao~dang gui~gou qi~ GO
Chinese yam…Angelica sinensis….Lycium chinense…GO

山藥~當歸~枸杞~ go
Shan yao~dang gui~gou qi~ GO
Chinese yam …Angelica sinensis….Lycium chinense…GO

看我抓一把中藥　服下一帖驕傲
Kan wo zhua yi ba zhong yao fu xia yi tie jiao ao
Watch me grab some Chinese medicines and throw in some pride

Chorus:

我表情悠哉跳個大概
Wo biao qing you zai tiao ge da gai
My reaction is tranquil… hurdle over problems (estimates)

動作輕鬆自在　你學不來
Dong zuo qing song zi zai ni xue bu lai
Actions are relaxed and free …you will never learn

霓虹的招牌　調整好狀態
Ni hong de zhao pai diao zheng hao zhuang tai
Neon signs…organised into a neat manner

在華麗的城市　等待醒來
Zai hua li de cheng shi deng dai xing lai
In this grand city…waiting [for it] to awaken

我表情悠哉　跳個大概
Wo biao qing you zai tiao ge da gai
My reaction is tranquil… hurdle over problems (estimates)

用書法書朝代　內力傳開
Yong shu fa shu zhao dai nai li chuan kai
Using calligraphy to describe a dynasty…internal force is unleashed

豪氣揮正楷　給一拳對白
Hao qi hui zheng kai gei yi quan dui bai
Gallant manner to write in standard calligraphy….give a fist of dialogue

結局平躺下來　看誰厲害 **
Jie ju ping tang xia lai kan shui li hai **
The ending starts to become stable/clear… see who is the most impressive

Verse 2:

練成什麼丹
Lian cheng shen mo dan
Refined into what panacea? 　

揉成什麼丸
Rou cheng shen mo wan
Kneaded into what pill?

鹿茸切片不能太薄
Lu rong qie pian bu neng tai bo
Deer horn must not be sliced to thinly

老師傅的手法不能這樣亂抄
Lao shi fu de shou fa bu neng zhe yang luan chao
The old master’s skill cannot just be haphazardly copied

龜苓膏　雲南白藥　還有冬蟲夏草
Gui ling gao ~ yun nan bai yao ~ hai you dong chong xia cao
Gui ling gao ~ yun ling bai yao ~ and dong chong xia cao

自己的音樂自己的藥　份量剛剛好
Zi ji de yin yue zi ji ke yao fen liang gang gang hao
My own music… my medicine… amount is just right

聽我說中藥苦　
Ting shuo guo zhong yao ku
Once heard that Chinese medicines were very bitter

抄襲應該更苦
Chao xi ying gai geng ku
Plagiarism is even more distasteful

快翻開本草綱目　
Kuai fan kai ben cao gang mu
Quickly open the Herbalist's Manual

多看一些善本書
Duo kan yi xie shan ben shu
Read more books on virtues

蟾蘇 ~ 地龍　已翻過江湖
Chan sudi long …yi fan guo jiang hu
Chan su, di long …overturn the underworld

這些老祖宗的辛苦　
Zhe xie lao zu zong de xin ku
This is our ancestors' hard work

我們一定不能輸
Wo men yi ding bu neng shu
We cannot lose

就是這個光 ~~~ 就是這個光 ~~~
Jiu shi zhe ge guang ~~~ Jiu shi zhe ge guang
This is the light ~~~ This is the light

一起唱
Yi qi chang
Let’s sing together

(就是這個光　就是這個光)
(Jiu shi zhe ge guang ~~~ Jiu shi zhe ge guang)
(This is the light ~~~ This is the light)

Hey ～～～～

讓我來調個
Rang wo lai diao ge pian fang
Let me write you a prescription

專治你媚外的內傷
Zhuan zhi ni mei wai de nei shang
Especially cure internal wounds of foreign-fawning

已札根千年的漢方
Yi zha gen qian nian de han fang
A prescription rooted in millenniums of Chinese culture

有別人不知道的力量
Yong bie ren bu zhi dao de li liang
Has unknown strength

Repeat Chorus

蹲　小殭屍蹲　小殭屍蹲
Dun xiao jiang shi dun xiao jiang shi dun
Bend … small corpse bend… small corpse bend…

又蹲　小殭屍蹲　暗巷點燈
Dun xiao jiang shi dun an xiang dian deng
Bend… small corpse bend… dark alleyway lit by light

又蹲　小殭屍蹲　鑽蘿蔔坑
Dun xiao jiang shi dun zuan luo bo keng
Bend… small corpse bend… dig a turnip hole

又蹲　小殭屍蹲　唸咒語哼
Dun xiao jiang shi dun nian zhou yu heng
Bend… small corpse bend…chanting a curse

Sweet Girls

2008-11-05T22:22:00.005-10:00

Sweet little girls,
Looking for a Man who is called Mr. Right,
Asking for an advice,
I couldn't answer,
For all I know about him is from you,
My sweet little girls,

Sweet little girls,
Looking for a Woman who is called Miss. Right,
Asking me for the suggestion,
Couldn't answer,
For all I know about her is from you,
My sweet little girls,

sweet little girls,
Love starts from loving self,
Oh, sweet little girls,
"You are his/her favorate" is a knife on this empty answer sheet,

Oh, sweet little girls,
Make a vow of faith,
Drink this glass of friendship,
Take my shoulder when you need,

What can I do to love you?
My sweet little girls.

Vog and Chinese Food and Medicine: 清肺

2008-10-28T22:46:00.005-10:00

Oh, dear vog, let's read some stuffs from Chinese doctors!
Good luck with fighting vog!

Plus:
http://hawaii.gov/gov/vog

This is some ingredients play some interesting roles in clean the lungs in Chinese Medicine:
(Yay, Chinese eat anything and Chinese vegetarian will eat any plants and mushrooms for fun...)
LoL

white turnip： cough, phlegm, smoker
lily (put lily into porridge or soup):
mung:
water chestnut: clearing away heat (Chinese medicine)
silver mushroom
lotus seed
honey
refined white sugar
white gourd

DON'T eat too spicy, salty or greasy.

These are some recipes to make those ingredients tasty (sorry, don't have time to translate, hopefully, Google translate can help ):

a. 雪耳、莲子、百合、排骨汤：
　　原料：雪耳75克，百合100克，排骨500克。
　　做法：将上述选料清洗之后加水一起放入煲内煮沸，煲3小时。
b. 桑百皮、百合、排骨汤：
　　原料：桑百皮50克，百合75克，排骨500克。
　　做法：将上述选料清洗干净后加水，然后一并放进煲内煮沸，煲一个半小时。
c. 润肺银耳羹：
　　原料：银耳5克，冰糖50克。
　　做法：将银耳放入盆内，以温水浸泡30分钟，待其发透后摘去蒂头、拣去杂质；将银耳撕成片状，放入洁净的锅内，加水适量，以武火煮沸后，再用文火煎熬1小时，然后加入冰糖，直至银耳炖烂为止。
d. 润肺豆浆粥：
　　原料：豆浆1000克，糯米100克，白糖适量。
　　做法：将糯米洗净放入锅中，加水适量，武火烧沸后改用文火慢慢熬煮，煮至米粒开花时倒入豆浆，继续熬10分钟，加白糖适量即可。
e. 鸭肉粥：
　　原料：鸭肉150克，糯米250克，料酒、盐少许。
　　做法：先将鸭肉切丁；糯米加水煮粥，然后加入鸭肉、少许料酒和盐，煮至粥熟。
f. 毛肚血汤：
　　原料：鸭血300克，毛肚150克（注意不要加入羊肉，因为羊肉属热，不适宜在气温渐高、天气干燥的春夏之交食用）。
　　配料：黄喉、鳝鱼、午餐肉、黄豆芽、粉丝各100克，重庆火锅底料、泡姜、大蒜、味精、白糖各少许。
　　做法：先将鸭血切成片，放在炒锅中用清水汆一下待用；再放少许清油把姜片、蒜片炒一下，放入重庆火锅底料烧开；汤味熬好后，加入鸭血、毛肚、黄喉、鳝鱼、午餐肉、黄豆芽、粉丝等直至煮熟（注意毛肚不要煮得太老）。
　　提示：俗话说“血能洗肺”。因此，对于这种绵软滑爽又非常便宜的血豆腐，此时不吃更待何时？
g. 火腿冬瓜汤：
　　原料：火腿片，冬瓜片。
　　配料：葱丝，姜丝，虾皮，盐，糖，麻油。
　　做法：锅内放清水煮沸，将冬瓜片及配料下锅煮10分钟后加入火腿片，2分钟后即可出锅；出锅前加入葱花、麻油、盐、糖。
　　提示：此汤清新可口，去燥润肺，适合春夏季节食用。

Reference:
http://www.xicn.net/life/health/item/2003-05-16/117642.html

new obsessions: Analects of Confucius

2008-10-27T23:39:00.004-10:00

Wonderful philosophy book.
Amen after reading it and
Hallelujah after reciting it.

How to be a good naggee

2008-10-20T23:38:00.002-10:00

For couple with nagging issue and believes in Bible:
Psalm 139
http://www.yawill.com/bib/viewbook.php?lang=zh&ver=ncv&book=20&chapter=31

For naggee side：
How to Deal With a Wife That Nags a Lot. (~Fun to read~)
http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-1278.0.html#msg28774

Men talk more than women overall But Not In All Circumstances
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071108171518.htm

Study: Women Are in Charge at Home
http://www.livescience.com/health/070711_woman_boss.html

For nagger:
Why do men ignore nagging wives? It's all science
http://pressesc.com/01171393773_nagging_wife_ignore

Fourteen tips to avoid nagging.
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/06/fourteen-tips-t.html

Say No Now, to prevent the oooh nooo!!!" moment

2008-10-16T23:57:00.001-10:00

Say No Now, to prevent the oooh nooo!!!" moment

Originally uploaded by ucumari

Slowly learning to say no... in a series of girl-guy stuffs happening in these two weeks.
I "blamed" to the dancing practice, and was told that it is the tests from above.
slowly learning... lol...

Say "No" now, so there won't be a situation of "OOOOOOH NOOOOOOOO!" later.
lol

Here are the series happening in these two weeks. (don't read this block, for self reflection is always a waste of time)
---------------------------
1.
Random Houseless Guy A: hei you look pretty.
The Gal: oh thanks. (naive, i was really willing to listen to someone appreciate my prettiness)
Random Houseless Guy A: can i have your number?
The Gal: okay. (naive, agai)
(ennnn...scared to answer the phone now)

2.
Random Guy B: Hei, just want you to know that you are lucky.
The Gal: Oh, why? ( very protective)
Random Guy B: You are pretty.
The Gal: Oh, thanks. It's the gift from God. (very happy)
Random Guy B: Can i give you my number?
The Gal: no, I am sure won't call you. but you are welcometomychurchonsundayatxxx. (protective)
Random Guy B: en, okay.
(thinking about how to report to her brahs & sistahs to "fix" the guy, while forgetting actually she was the one needs to be fixed: " just say no directly!)"

3
Random Guy C: Hei, you are very beautiful
The Gal: Thanks! (victorious smile)
Random Guy C: Do you wanna hang out sometime?
The Gal: No thanks. I don't do that. Nice meeting you and hope you have a good day. I am running for a meeting. May God bless you in the rest of your day.
(running away. Learned)

-----------------whew, time to be serious. the rest blocks will be useful----------------

As it mentioned above, those must be the tests from above. Should have known how to control the tongue! ~~^_^oOV
Slow learner needs some wisdom from above......

Thus, not only the guy-girl thing, but also the daily life, the friendship, the work and the research.
"No" is very necessary, to protect yourself from distracting, to keep a good pace, and to be focus with higher efficiency.

------------------------------------
So, how do we say this nasty "no", if it is really a rude thing to do?
I found the steps below has been very useful for myself:
=D

OH NO!!!!!!!!!
Originally uploaded by cooperis

1. gently appreciate whatever the situation comes in front of you. Appreciate it loudly and respectfully.
2. Find a common ground, to make a benefit for each other.
4. Decline, respectfully & politely, in a determined way.
5. Keep confident about the decision you made.
6. Don't feel bad or guilty. Pray for the "no" situation.
7. Focus on the "yes" you have been making.

Good luck with practicing this "no" game.
For we don't want to say that "OOOOOOH, NOOOOOOOOO!!!" at the end~~
lol
-------------------------

----------------------------------------

Translation ... duplicate in this blog, simply beause the facebook import will push the update faster

2008-10-16T17:22:00.000-10:00

Translation for
http://www.hawaii.edu/issmanoa/student_harassment.htm
It's the page in University of Hawaii at Manoa's International Student Services' website about Sexual Harassment.

It has been translated into Japanese and Korean and hope the version in Mandarin will be updated soon.
We need more people to work on it, specially traditional Chinese side. If you speak Mandarin, please do not hesitate to contribute.
You may reach us with email: cleah at cleah dot org

Mahalo!

什么是性骚扰

中文简体
夏威夷大学
Translated by: Lulu
2008-10

1. 性骚扰是…
在学校，性骚扰是一种在性与性别认同上的权力滥用, 而导致妨碍或伤害学生的学术表现或者工作环境的行为。
例如：

有关”性”的评注，暗讽，恶作剧或者评论
挑逗或者淫秽的动作或肢体语言
在当事人明示拒绝后的重复的约会请求
性的涂鸦或其他视觉宣传物，如海报，日程表等等
不志愿的/ 不想要的触，摸，抓, 拥抱或者拍打
强迫要求/重复请求当事人参与社交活动或性行为
胡乱散步有关当事人的性特征或性行为谣言
挑逗或猥亵的邮件
如果当事人不接受以上行为情况下，威胁或降低当事人的成绩
如果当事人不顺从员工的社交要求或者性要求，威胁解雇当事人

2．如何应对性骚扰
在性骚扰发生后:

请不要忽视当前的情况
不要自责
告诉他人：信任的导师，顾问或者朋友
和你所信赖的人倾诉所发生的事情和你的感受
书信通知或者当面告知当事人停止性骚扰行为. 告知当事人你不喜欢这样的行为非常重要.
保持书面记录你的经历，包括日期，时间，地点和姓名
寻求帮助；记住你不是孤独一人
明白你的权利。性别平等咨询办公室乐意为您提供更多有关官方或非官方控诉手续的信息.

3. 性骚扰在美国是非法行为

有关性骚扰荒诞的说法

荒谬误解：在美国，人有自由说话的权利，只要说了没有做（性骚扰的事情）就是合法的。
实际上：在美国，自由言论包括自由讨论一个观点，而不是要求性服务或威胁他人

荒谬误解：我在性骚扰面前不能做任何事情，因为这些仅是他/她和我言语上的意见不合。
实际上：性骚扰是非法的。如果你遇到性骚扰，告诉朋友或性别平等咨询办公室，了解你的权利和义务。

荒谬误解：担心性骚扰是对开玩笑的过分反应
实际上：性骚扰和开玩笑不同。性骚扰会让你感觉不舒服，是单方的，可耻的，会让你感觉到无助。而开玩笑则不会让你感觉不舒服，玩笑往往是互动的，是建立在平等和尊敬的基础上。是相互自愿的友善行为。

荒谬误解：只有女人才会被性骚扰。
事实上：任何人可能遭到性骚扰：女人，男人，儿童，异性恋，双性恋，男同志，女同志以及做过变性手术的个人们。

有人认为性骚扰不是很严重。但请切记，性骚扰在美国是严重的违法行为，性骚扰和在教育上的性别歧视是被联邦法律第六条明文禁止的行为。

4. 性骚扰的类型交换条件/不利环境
1）交换条件
例如，当你老师根据你对他/她性方面的要求的反应而奖励你更高的分数或者威胁你更低的分数。

2）敌对的环境
例如，在身体接触，行为言论或者视觉性骚扰严重妨碍到你工作学习。这种性骚扰行为不一定会给你的成绩造成直接威胁，但这样的性骚扰行为可能影响到你的教授，学校工作人员或者学生。

5．如何寻找帮助？
在夏威夷大学的学生，老师以及各级工作人员可以通过联系一下单位/个人，获得更多相关信息建议和帮助：

Gender Equity Counselor : http://www.hawaii.edu/osa/Gender_Equity/
Dean of Students Office
Civil Rights Counselor : Queen Lili‘uokalani Center for Student Services 210

Thank God or Thank People?

2008-10-15T10:25:00.000-10:00

From "Thanks be to God"... en...

1. Who need this appreciation the most if we have to pick up only one?
People of course. They are not perfect and they need some encouragement to do the good deeds.

2. How to give thanks to God?
Love people's souls, accordingly.
Saying it? like "God loves you more than you can imagine"? Yes, absolutely!
Doing good deeds? like "lunch and prayers for homeless"? yes, creative!
But I'm sure, it's all done not for God, but "with and through God".

3. according to the "praise God" action from my observation, two kinds of reaction:
80% God's believers will think this is fantastically right and perfect. We give all thanks to God.
100% "God makes no sense" people will directly give the judgment that "you guys are crazy, not thankful, and devoid of all gratitude."
Bridge this impression, dudes.
Thank People and God. ( un-christian)
--------------------

Result:
Be supernatural, not superficial. Praise God with good deeds and good words, according to the souls and needs.
Specially when group emailing or broadcasting or in any public settings, the best is to consider what God cares the most.

Just a thought before going to a class and it is good day with lots to be done.
=)

Ethnocultural perspectives on PTSD ... =D

2008-10-09T14:48:00.000-10:00

En..read an interesting book unexpectedly, wrote more than required pages, but deleted most of personal stuffs perspectives, since I might be not in the category of the book region, though similar to C-A, still, situations varies from time to time.

Very impressive, specially for it's scientific research, categorization is an easy way to do the test and find the most exact result, but for real life cases, every single person has to be counted as a new cultural carrier. No pre-judgments or bias can be blocked before the empathy nor sensitivity.

As it says, it's a book of major minorities, to fill the blank brick in this special area, it will be very interesting to see how all stuffs come together, logically, sociologically, scientifically and spiritually true.
:D

still feel sorry about 9 pages nonsense words, lol... all are just an appreciation for the authors contribution in this area.

XOXO, with the scientific mindedness hypothesis, still, we will find that, God is good. lol

---------------

Finally found out, there is something big is missing in the book! Da application is subtle...
=I

plus... really don't want to return the book !!! ~~~

=P

this is dos and donts email season

2008-10-07T10:34:00.000-10:00

First etec course 5-step model, to this random blog entry jumping into my RSS subscription.
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/09/the-soul-of-wit.html

Always wish I could have knew something earlier.... sh~
=D

PLAN670 D. in mandarin apply

2008-10-03T17:36:00.000-10:00

Part of interesting things found in the course.

Here are the characters of disaster in Chinese, and it is about destroy of the house, either by fire, or through flood, or from both.

《誠明（二）》, "Cheng Ming (2nd)"
Early Shang Dynasty

From the book 《乙（九五九）》"Yi (Nine Five Nine)"
In Late Shang Dynasty

《楚帛書》,"Chu Jin Shu"
In Xi Zhou Dynasty and the Warring States Period

《古鉨》 "Gu Xi"
Han Dynasty.

So, to answer the question from the professor, I Ching is the book about astrology in ancient China, and it's a very difficult to read and comprehend.

Now:
Traditional Chinese: 災 -- the shapes are about water and fire
Simplified Chinese: 灾 -- the shapes represent fire and house.

Most of the natural disaster in China as far as I understand, it's directly supported by the military directly, with a very high efficiency.

Chinese don't hug t-shirt

2008-10-02T21:00:00.000-10:00

Chinese don't hug t-shirt
Originally uploaded by Lulu

Chinese don't hug, it's real!
=D

Before going to China, hug as much as you can!
It's a good exercise to love and be loved when practicing the arm opening movements.

For those who are from a non-hugging culture and get embarrassed by the hugs, feel free to print it on the t-shirt, wear this & have some fun to hug around.

lol

Lulu

ETEC 645: dRaFt for FuN~~Electronic mail communication

2008-10-02T16:29:00.000-10:00

ETEC 645: dRaFt for fUn~
Electronic mail communication:
as person - person, person - group,
group - person, group - group

This is supposed to be academia,
but sorry, it's too fun to be academia...

so...lazily, i chooooose to have a fun...entry...

Lulu

Person - Person E-mail Communication
Real Life Metaphor - Personal conversation, dating, personal meeting,
E-mail Model: 5-steps model by Purpose of the email, Content of the email, What should be done and will be done.
Remember to consider the personal background.
Other online forms : instent message, text message, phone calls, facebook wall posting,

Person - Group E-mail Communication
Real Life Metaphor - public speaking in a group
E-mail Model: with the 5-steps model, remember to consider the group interest and avoid oersonal-group conflict, personal privacy, and copyright. For example, a research based group such as Center for Chinese Studies may not expect to get an religious event annoucnement in the local Chinese community.
Other online form: post entries on forum , google group posting, facebook group, ning network, ...

Group - Person E-mail Communication:
Real Life Metaphor - for the recieving person, it might be like a group interview, or Q&A after speaking, or even the jury on court.
E-mail Model: 5-steps model, with focusing on the purpose of the communication.
Other forms: Broadcasting, TV, News updating, Google Group,

Group - Group E-mail Communiation
Real Life Metaphor - rould table meeting, Olympics, summit conferences,
Reasonable purpose group-group communication: Information exchange, conflict resolution, events setting up, biz trading, groups negotiation....
Thus: Information exchange in electronic mail can be acceptable, but considering the conflict resolution between groups or setting up some cross-group event, other forms of communication have to be taken account of. If the communication is not under the standard, misuse of group to group mail might involve serious conflict.
Attention: avoid inter-groups conflict, use other forms of communication
Other online forms: open Forum, tele-conference,

I should not say that e-mail is out of date, since it's still used broadly in my life.
But for the professional, goverment, biz, organizations, ERP should be a better way to communicate and negotiate, so that the receiever and sender group will be speificed.

My model:

Think the 5-steps -> save the draft ->
wait for 10 minutes -> review it again -> send

Sometimes, we don't know we were drunk into some negative mood and lost the neutrality. Like when I am reading my past blog entries, I am seldom content with what I wrote before. It's a learning process and I have to say it's good to be honest to myself. That "10 minutes" waiting step is to calm down myself and to be relatively ojective.

References:

Grandgenett N., and Grandgenett, D., (2001), Problem Resolution Through Electronic Mail: A Five-Step Model, Innovations in Education and Teaching Internationa. , ISSN 1470-3297 print ISSN 1470-3300 online © 2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Menchaca, M., (2008), ETEC 645 Website, http://etec.hawaii.edu/otec/classes/645/10.05.08.htm

Etec 645 - Review the paper: Problem Resolution Through Electronic Mail

2008-10-02T14:23:00.000-10:00

Review : Problem Resolution Through Electronic Mail

Lulu
liuliu@hawaii.edu

Introduction
In this essay I will review the paper: Problem Resolution Through Electronic Mail: A Five-Step Model’ by Neal Grandgenett and Don Grandgenett. Collectively, the paper analyzes the electronic mail’s advantages and disadvantages, and with a scenario of using electronic mail to approach resolving the problem, it generalizes the five step models for education and training environments.

Summary
As the paper serves specifically for school and training environment, the article can be visualized as the picture below.

Mind Map Summary

The paper first analyzes the three benefits of using the electronic mail for resolving conflict/problem, such as fast response, advantage of written communication and flexibility of linking to the other information. Then it examines the additional problems the electronic mails might bring, such as tone misunderstanding between sender and receiver, distrust between the sender and the receiver, the manipulative feeling the receivers might feel and the misreading of the content by the receiver. At last, the paper gives us a five-step model of writing a well-structured and effective electronic mail, which is considered as answering the five questions listed below:

What is the problem? – the problem title
What makes it a problem? – the problem summary
What can be done? – the resolution examination
What should be done? – the preferable resolution of the problem
What will be done? – the bottom line to the situation

Critical analysis
The mind map shows the critical analysis of the article with the red font, and it can be enlarged by clicking the picture.

Mind map of the critical analysis

As the paper presents that one of the benefits of using electronic emails in school is because people at school and training organizations turn to use the electronic mail a lot. Then the question how often for a professor to read emails from students may be asked? What if the staff is on vacation or in a conference? If the situation is urgent, the e-mail probably will be a drag for the whole problem resolution. Especially when the conflict is from below (such as from student, new faculties) to above, the answer of the electronic mail might be delayed comparing with versus.

Secondly, writing communication do requires more thinking process, which may help the clarity of the language, but the limitation of the text communication also weakens the electronic mail’s effectiveness. The reference to support the effectiveness of text communication is from an article used by Vogel back in 1988, which really not convincing enough for nowadays school and training organization environment. (Need a reference of growing use of the internet/multi-media at school and training organization). Comparing with the text, the voice and images can carry richer content, with multidimensional senses to address the content of the problem, the degree of the urgency, as well as the severity of the problem. Thus, when the hardware allows, if the sender well drafts the content of the text and voice/image message before sending/calling/posting to the receiver, there is no significant advantage of the text communication.

Thirdly, the use of voice and image can actually avoid the conflict aroused by misunderstanding and distrusting between sending and receiving agents. As it mentioned in the last point, voice and image can carry richer information to address the different aspects of the problem, so as to resolve the problem in a more efficient way.

Last, the author generalized all kinds of training environment into this one 5-steps model without considering the culture of the organization or the manner of the administration. It is very important to consider the ethnocultural perspectives when communicating with cross culture agents.

Resolution
The mind map picture below shows the resolution of the critical aspect of electronic mails with the blue fonts. Click the picture to enlarge the picture.

Resolution Mind Map

First of all, as the article mentioned, the misunderstanding of the tone actually can be resolved by using other means of communication, such as the voice mail, phone call, online message, text message, twitter or online forum so on so forth with the rich content supporting. As mentioned before, sound and graphics will carry more information and emotion, as well as to avoid the misunderstanding. So, using other means instead of relying on e-mail can avoid misunderstanding and mis-communication.

Then, the use of open discussion can avoid the negative feeling of mistrusting that the text of the message is being copied to others inappropriately. This mistrust may slow down the receiver’s working efficiency (Need some references), which brings whole another privacy issue. Except the forum, Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is actually a good model to use for the whole school system to communicate, so that the flow of the message will be clear enough for everyone without confusing or delay. Of course, if the ERP is not viable, democratic open group email sending is also a good option, to avoid the receiver’s insecure feeling.

Additionally, the school or training organizations can try is through forum. It’s a very open voluntary way of communication. Combining the forum news publishing system with RSS feed subscription the receiver will be notified when the subscribed forum has some new messages.

Last but not the least, web 2.0 can also be an powerful communication tool. It integrates email, forums, RSS and instant message systems into a collaborative environment for users communicating and networking

Questions for further research
1. As Web 2.0 enters life, open social is a trendy way of communication. How the school use the web 2.0 to communicate and resolve the problem is a new area to research into.
2. and individuality are the focus of some culture, while sharing and opening are the focus of some other cultures, how will these two cultures communicate with emails?
3. Globalization brings a challenge of e-mail communication. Not everyone is good at Latin language text communication. What the model of e-mail should be like, when resolving the cross culture and cross languages problems.
4. Can a school organization address collaboration, coordination and cooperation, for creative leaderships?

References:
Grandgenett N., and Grandgenett, D., (2001), Problem Resolution Through Electronic Mail: A Five-Step Model, Innovations in Education and Teaching Internationa. , ISSN 1470-3297 print ISSN 1470-3300 online © 2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Menchaca, M., (2008), ETEC 645 Website, http://etec.hawaii.edu/otec/classes/645/10.05.08.htm

Other entries about emails:
http://artemispeace.blogspot.com/2008/10/etec-645-draft-for-funelectronic-mail.html
http://artemispeace.blogspot.com/2008/10/this-is-dos-and-donts-email-season.html

names

2008-09-29T21:39:00.000-10:00

A friend of mine: So, what is your name?
Me: Pick up one you like (Gave her a list of all my names from Chinese[柳] to English [Crystal]to Greek [artemis] to Hawaiian [KeAla OKeakua] to my nick name [Lulu].)
friend : How can people remember you names?
Me: it doesn't matter. I don't remember people's names either.
friend : ...

After this conversation, did unified my names. It reminds me a great song: remember the name.
Miss Audrey...
^_^|||

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Neop9OVaB8

James 2....what if overdid it?

2008-09-29T14:34:00.000-10:00

lol
Interesting enough: I...was...

--- Ignoring the Pastor, my own group friends and close friends.
(Not intentionally. It's just no time to favor all.)
--- Ignoring or even being cynical for the commercial-looking people.
(Hilariously, giving a white eyes up and a gray long face with "good luck I don't care your commercial stuffs" expression are my immediate reaction after knowing the guy is big& famous in some area)
--- Assuming my friends are already loved and don't need my attention in church.
( it will definitely hurt the friendships.)
--- Being hospitable to the houseless guy and causing a problem of having no idea how to deal with the phone call from him.

Oh, good Lord, this is an interesting message to control my cynicism and fast facial expressions.

=P
Overdoing loving the otherness and favoring the poor may cause some interesting effect and hopefully at last, no "rich good looking successful" people will be around and the friends will be refreshed with poor ugly and unsuccessful people, again and again.

WOW...Cool....
Reading the James is like talking with my mom on the phone.
=D

The Amazing Jiu Zhai

2008-09-23T13:06:00.000-10:00

More info about Jiu Zhai Gou at Wikipedia: Jiu Zhai Gou Valley in Wikipedia
One more Hint --- it's close to the earthquake center in Si Chuan province.

神奇的九寨 - The Mysterious Jiu Zhai
容中尔甲 Rong Zhong Er Jia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5HLLPEHGwM

在离天很近的地方
总有一双眼睛在守望
她有着森林绚丽的梦想
她有着大海碧波的光芒
到底是谁的呼唤那样真真切切
到底是谁的心灵那样寻寻觅觅
There are a pair of eyes looking,
At the gate of the heaven,
She is with the dream of florid forest
She is with the brilliant rays from the blue ocean,
Whose voice is that, vividly calling?
Whose spirit is that, thoroughly seeking?

噢,神奇的九寨, 人间的天堂
你把那温情的林光洒遍山岗
噢,神奇的九寨 , 人间的天堂
你看那天下的人儿深情向往
深情向往
Oh, it’s the mysterious Jiu Zhai,
Oh, it’s the heaven on earth,
It spreads the tender light of the forest among the monticule,
Oh, it’s the mysterious Jiu Zhai,
Oh, it’s the heaven on earth
Look, peoples around the world are attracted with passion,
peoples around the world are attracted, with passion.

在离我很远的地方
总有一支花朵在芬芳
她有着生命祈求的梦想
她有着日月轮回的沧桑 mutable
到底是谁的呼唤那样真真切切
到底是谁的心灵那样寻寻觅觅
There is a flower, redolence and fragrant,
far away from me.
She is with the dream of the life prayer,
She is with the tribulation of incarnation,
Whose voice is that, calling so vividly?
Whose spirit is that, seeking so thoroughly?

噢, 神奇的九寨, 人间的天堂
你把那童话的世界铺满高原
噢,神奇的九寨, 人间的天堂
你看那天下的人儿深情向注
深情向往
It’s the mysterious Jiu Zhai,
The heaven on earth
You spread the warmhearted light among the monticule,
It’s the mysterious Jiu Zhai,
The heaven on earth
Look, peoples around the world are attracted with passion,
Peoples around the world are attracted with passion.

Double-minded v.s. bilingual mind sets

2008-09-17T03:00:00.000-10:00

Thanks for James putting that double minded people on warning.
Gonna figure out a way to unite my bilingual minds... lol

First of all, bilingual people have two mind sets.
It's not like we are translating from one language to another all the times, it's like English is a language I am communicating with people, separated from Chinese system, and whenever the circumstances shift, it's related with the whole mind set changing.

Then, considering myself as a whole brain talented in Chinese, while having no any ideas how to active some part of the brain in English, which really scarifies me out. If there are someone doing research on this kind, I am the best volunteer and I would love to sacrifice for whatever the researcher requires, if it will benefit the people with bilingual background

Then, everyday, the same question will be put in front of myself, again and again:
Should I hug and kiss the chick, or should I shake hands, or should I just nod and greet?
Should I say sorry, or should I just smile and nod, or
Should I smile and be like myself, or should I consider the so called professional image in the Caucasian culture?
This is probably a surface symptom of mind sets shifting along with culture contexts changing.

At least, with lots of creative chaos, the double minded people made some history, such as Columbus' conflict public letters and personal journals...
As Coldplay wrote in Viva La Vida and I enjoy, with suspicion.
Good music, but we need some critical thinker to make it as a educational material.

Warning for me:
1． Be single mind first, before start doing anything sounds right and creative, for beyond whatsoever, what is good for me will keep faithful for myself, and if I am not single minded, it might be a mass chaos for others.
2. Pure Joy, even the profession is not allowing me, for some people just need a smile and itis just selfish to hide my smile for myself.
3. Write in Mandarin about my mind and personal thought, to just prevent the potential double minds. (in my personal blog)
4. Challenge myself everyday with refreshment.

=D

Re: John DeFrancis Remarks

2008-09-16T18:06:00.000-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afaVjLlnUtQ

1. Want to hear more about Lu Xun as well.
The cut is strange at the Lu Xun's part at the beginning.

2.thank God, pinyin is the only thing I use for Chinese inputting, I think it helps me to learn English.

3. Don't be disappointed by the policy.
It is conservative, but understandable.
a. it's not easy for the last generation to learn about the computer, and it will be harder to learn Pinyin. In a culture of respecting elders, I understand this shape inputting emphasis.
(As mentioned above, personally, I love latinization! This opens my brain of learning both Latin language and Chinese in my childhood.)
b. practical reason - speed. Those who know how to type both pinyin and shape input will tell you how much faster it is to use shape input instead of pinyin (will analyze more in the point 4).
c. prevent next generations from forgetting how to write Chinese characters, since the computer use. This problem exists in all cultures. Human just love traditions and want to keep it.

4. Latinization will be the future trend for input software, for the population speaks the standard Chinese is growing with the urbanization, the Television, and the internet.
Let's analyze it in Human Computer Interaction sense:
Psychologically,
if the person can pronounce the word perfectly, she/he would love to use pinyin;
if the person can write the word perfectly, he/she would love to use shape input.
If the person can write and speak Chinese both perfectly, he/she would love to use pinyin, for it's takes longer time to memorize another keyboard system than just type pinyin perfectly.
Let's say if the person only knows how to write some characters, with hard time to pronounce the standard Chinese, he probably will choose the shape input, other than pinyin, for Chinese characters is "shape oriented".

Since the urbanization and intellectualization is the trend in China, standard Mandarin will be the natural trend, as well as Pinyin.

If Chinese government is doing this promotion for shape input to against human nature and psychological preference, I will pray for the "grass root" software companies.
If Chinese government is doing this promotion for minorities who may find hard to speak perfect standard Mandarin, I pray for the government software companies.
Often, it's just hard for people to pronounce it perfect in pinyin, for there are tons of dialects in China.

5. for Taiwan.
Support the minority languages.
Develop the pinyin - traditional input and be generous like a nation.

(We know Taiwanese people are very generous, but in term of nation, it’s actually not an easy thing for a democratic small nation to do)
One tip in my head for Taiwan policy makers is to learn from Singapore if it’s possible. Make Taiwan attractive for other nations to come and be a multi-cultural Taiwan.

Lulu

obesity health and defination of normal

2008-09-12T18:27:00.000-10:00

Obesity growth in Hawaii...en...
As the some reports from HHIC shows, obesity is growing in Hawaii,
http://hhic.org/005--obesity.asp
As the report shows,
http://hhic.org/obesity-hospitalizations.asp
if obesity brings the burden for hospital and economics, then reshaping the definition of the normal while enlarging the supply of healthy food might be the point to advocate.

but...i love fat stuffs, like some of my friends may agree with me that round = cute, such as, stuff animals....^^|||
they all are cute and fat!!!
or infants...
or even the cupid...lol

why we define obesity as a disease, not the other way around?

>_<...

------------seriously -----------------seriously ------------

if obesity brings the burden for hospital and economics, then reshaping the definition of the normal while enlarging the supply of healthy food might be the point to advocate.

+Promote & support local farms to Grow Healthy Food,
- > supply of healthy food > need;
->price changing
-> people will consider the healthy food considering its competitive price.

+ Learn from healthy food cultures.
Japan is famous for long lifespan, though eating Japanese food might risk for monosodium glutamate, as scientifically proved unhealthy, though average working hours and working pressure in Japan is higher than lots of other places.
Looking into food of Japan, it's all about healthy food.
It's a great gift to borrow, since the population in Hawaii is huge.

+ If eating habit and way of life is the major reason of obesity,
then what brings the eating habit and pattern of life?
It can be influenced by the definition of the normal, the people around them, or the people whom they grow up with hang out with and work with,
which may includes parameters such as age , economic status, ethnicity, family culture, etc.
So, the obesity may be shifted if figuring out a way to break through those parameters.
Though, it's not gonna be a simple chain, and all the parameters are connected and influences each other like a wet.
People will regroup and re-divide again, as well as redefining the pattern of life and the definition of the normal.
Hopefully, if there is a trend of people regrouping, the obesity will be easier for Hawaii, since culture really is the huge

Optimists will think the change is always good, towards a way of learning to respect for the otherness．

Aloha Spirit or...(revised)

2008-09-05T18:52:00.000-10:00

A year ago, participated with a small project with some official and Pastor Aaran, about Aloha Spirit card, with a group of Chinese visitors.
I was spiritually drained at that time. I guess Aloha Spirit can't replace the Holy Spirit. Personally, Aloha without spirit is dead, or Aloha without Spirit is the rules and doctrine. Specially for those are from a different culture, it's hard for them to comprehend Aloha Spirit.

Days ago, Obama reminded me again about this Aloha spirit, which bothers me somehow and wondering why not just say it directly...Holy Spirit? (since Americans know that well)
I believe people in the world probably needs Holy Spirit, at least it's spiritual,for good?

But if it's easier to accept a creative new things from another culture, for those who already has the Power of Holy Spirit, and wanna be creative, I guess authorities won't say it's wrong.

En...Aloha Spirit without Spirit is dead. It's a warning from my personal perspective.

Galatians 5 : 22
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

PLUS ...
2 Corinthians 6

....
But Hawaii people probably need some creative policy to boost the economy while finding the alternative energy.

Food is expensive...

Will things be the same?

2008-08-15T00:41:00.000-10:00

Dedicated to friend Audrey

Will the two psychics meet in a Mango season?

At the latitude of Egypt, on a grand grave yard,
For the mountain we never hiked,
No plan, on the lonely planet,
Until the dreams we are following fulfilled.

Will the Manoa Valley look the same without you here?
A magic power carried by you reshapes those clouds,
A delicious color decorates the sky mingled by our hearts
The rain will be wondering around in this Pacific Time
Until another psychic find me reading in that climbing tree.

Will the mangoes in grave yard be picked up next year?
The wildness won’t be in a same adventure,
Plan B with alien alchemist is under smelt,
Grave yard or Tibet Temple,
Until world is too small to dwelt in.

Will the coffee maker filled up with only two cups of water?
Four cups as always be,
Two for tomorrow and two for whatsoever,
Habit is missing with instinct,
Until Kona coffee is rated as the universal best.

Will Tofu taste better than Salmon in a Peta shirt?
Tofu tastes plain but Salmon pays no pain,
Lovely accompany makes the Salmon feels heavenly,
Butterfly dances freely when the chrysalis broken,
Until sweet bread French toasts with Acia starts another Aloha day.

Will the two psychics meet in a Mango season?

At the latitude of Egypt, on a grand grave yard,
For the mountain we never hiked,
No plan, lonely planet,
Until the dreams we are following fulfilled.

---------------------------------
A beautiful heart brings the best to the world around. Just made four cups of coffee. =D

data Matching software evaluation

2008-08-12T03:24:00.000-10:00

data matching software evaluation:
last minute's... =D

http://www.chcf.org/documents/healthit/PatientDataMatchingBuyersGuide.pdf
http://iris.usc.edu/Vision-Notes/bibliography/match-pl540.html
http://www.neotool.com/blog/2007/01/26/patient-data-matching-with-hl7-messages/
http://www.ncss.com/datamatch.html
http://www.initiatesystems.com/resources/exec_summary/downloads/Documents/Master_data_management_and_accurate_data_matching.pdf

Data validation
For web application secure and data accuracy. It can be at interface, application, or database constraints. More to read: http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Data_Validation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Validation_rule

Link xxx with zzzz data:
Either very easy, or tons of tedious work. =I
Uuuuh...

From FeedBurner migration to Open Content

2008-08-08T11:19:00.000-10:00

Google has acquired FeedBurner for a year, in Aug 2 2008 feeds.feedburner.com redirected to feedproxy.google.com and the migration of this best RSS team will upgrade Advertising and publishing in Google. Though Google's expanding is scary yet exciting, with another firm purchasing in Russia lately, the contextual advertising and keyword filtering in Google Ad will keep fervent for a while in the globe business.

Absolutely, the benefit to business networking and the ads hits catalyze the growth of RSS, but as another reason of acquiring FeedBurner, publishing, it's accompany silently with Advertising symphony.

Though the benefit for publishers is exciting, with integrated equipments from Google. In spite of all the critical reviews for this acquiring, the RSS for publisher is way more exciting. By simply subscribing to RSS feed, the publisher can access the latest articles/publications/videos/blogs etc. without surfing back & forward or being annoyed by the stream-media ads.

This may not benefit to those who has no access to the content or online publications, besides, the extreme constrain in scholarly publications may minor the benefits and contributes in academic world. Fortunately, the open source movement is gradually extending from IT to other intellectual products. According to the latest EDweek, Stanford University opens the school of education scholarly articles to the public for free. This action of open content in academia interweaving with K-12's movement, is drawing a picture of World Two Point O, with equal open access to all.

Wen Chuan - Before May12, 2008

2008-07-28T11:03:00.001-10:00

Got those beautiful pictures from a friend.
Downtown - Wen Chuang :

Qiang House:

Harvestry on the roof of farmstead :

The local prayer temple:

An alley in Wen Chuan - Qiang(Chiang)

Qiang (Chiang) House

Diligent Woman

On the Top of the Mountain Fastness

Flowers

Qiang (Chiang)

Qiang (Chiang) Dance

Panda on the tree

Qiang village

An Antithetical couplet - 对联 :
熊猫家园古寨羌乡迎宾朋,
大禹故里圣地汶川敞胸怀.
Gardan of Panda, Native of Qiang welcome guests and friends,
Home of Dayu, Holy land of Wenchuan wide open mind.

龙池, Dragon Pool,

Tears in Heaven

Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?
Will it be the same if I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong, and carry on
Cause I know I don't belong here in heaven
如果我在天堂和你见面，你还会记得我的名字吗？
如果我在天堂与你重逢，我们还能像从前一样吗？
我必须学会坚强，勇敢支持下去，
因为我知道我还不属于天堂。

Would you hold my hand if I saw you in heaven?
Would you help me stand if I saw you in heaven?
I'll find my way, through night and day
Cause I know I just can't stay here in heaven
如果我在天堂和你相遇，你愿意握住我的手吗？
如果我在天堂与你再见，你愿意搀扶我起来吗？
再给我一些日子，我会找到我的方向，
因为我知道我还不属于天堂。

Time can bring you down;
time can bend your knee
Time can break your heart.
Have you begging please?
时间能让你倒下，
时间能让你屈膝，
时间能伤了你的心，
你还是会一直向上天祈求喜悦。

Beyond the door there's peace I'm sure.
And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven
在那扇门后，我相信是块和平的乐土，
于是我知道，我将不再泪洒天堂！

Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven
Will it be the same if I saw you in heaven
I must be strong, and carry on
Cause I know I don't belong here in heaven
如果我在天堂和你见面，你还会记得我的名字吗？
如果我在天堂与你重逢，我们还能像从前一样吗？
我必须学会坚强，勇敢支持下去，
因为我知道我还不属于天堂。

Video - Project Based Learning for Disaster Relief Education

2008-07-03T14:56:00.000-10:00

Summer school is fun: life won't get boring if we can squeeze a semester into six weeks. lol
Finally, got over the animated film: it's different from geek work. The essential part is actually at the storyboarding and scripts, other than geek.
Also, Adobe is amazing, but After Effects is such a giant for my laptop. I bedt it will only take half of the time with mac instead of pc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZxMVfT3mps

Not a fan of domain name but: forevereden.org to anti online pornography

2008-06-28T23:11:00.000-10:00

Never pay attention to the domain names. Got a newsletter of released domain name and the "forevereden.org" caught my eyes.
En... interesting! But I couldn't believe this domain was released and still availiable...
So Google found out it was a pornography domain...
Stunned for a while. Made a budget, for the sake of "environment protection" till broken.

Someone told me that the whitehouse dot com used to be a porn site and lots of students visited by mistakes. Now it's changed into a government site, even it's not with dot gov or org.

Gosh, we can start a campaign for domain names --- protecting the online environment. ...
or at least, someone should do that...
Those potential pornography domains can be used for education purpose, or charity or whatever common good.
-- Use the enemy's spear to pierce the enemy's shield.

PS:
I am not a Utopian nor Communist and have no idea what I can do with this this domain name...
i think i am crazy, .....this entry is going to offend a bunch of friends too...( used to think porn is ok if people won't consider doing anything halmful for other people)

If we all are saint, nothing will go wrong.

dance : getting attention or artistical creativity

2008-06-26T14:55:00.000-10:00

why not dance?

It's a serious. I almost considered it as my career.
So here, dance is not about attending to a class or joining a club or preparing for the entertaining events, it's about artistical creativity.
Getting attention is all about self centered expressing. Of course there is nothing wrong with getting attention. But considering about being a part of the society + dancers are more vulnerable than other artists => overwhelmed by the attention + fade out fast.
Artistical creativity is all about loving others. It should be pleasing and it's the utopiate without side effect.

When I spent too much time on dancing and drawing, my mom told me, "Learn to feed yourself before being an artist". Mom is always practical. According to the history, lots artists became famous after leaving the world.
Perhaps those artists were happy about being dovotional and passionate for art, but we don't know and we are evaluating their life as a bad time on earth. So their life turns out like a tragedy for the followers to digest.
It is getting worse in terms of dancing, since it's harder to be creative while getting no attention.

Other thing about artists:
It's easier for artists to mass up with the life, not because they are massed up. They just happened to be famous and all the mass couldn't be hidden as the rest of the world were doing.
I am sure I can hide my mass better than a tragedian.

Dancer or whatever (geek), both of them need a "tough skin", for good.

something to think about the education:
--- practical or interest driven education?

T-Shirt: Jesus Loves sexy Geeks

2008-06-25T23:11:00.001-10:00

Jesus Loves sexy Geeks T-shirt:
Feel free to print on T-shirts.

...Back to work …

ETEC698 - Blog - Regarding the Literacy

2008-06-19T10:10:00.000-10:00

Assignment 4

Description: Go to Blogger. Create an account and follow the steps to create a blog. After posting your thoughts regarding the Literacy assignment, send your blog link to the class email list and invite your peers to check it out. Visit a couple of your peers' blogs and post a comment or two.

Use the following criteria to assess your blog.

The online discussion on the topic of Literacy actually proves the information literacy is already in a non-traditional way and we are soaking in the information world. The "information highway" is not fast enough and the “cyberspace” is no longer a new for us (Dyson, Gilder, Keyworth & Toffler, 1994). Futurist is putting hards on creating the society with a vision of digital inclusion (Meinrath, 2006) and we all are the member of this web 2.0 global society. Honestly, I will be overwhelmed by the information everyday if I don't have a priority.

The article below is the revised post on information literature, inspirited by the critical comments. Comments said that the analysis of the weakness of the resource was not strong enough and makes the article inbalanced. While reading the comments, I was wondering how I could pin-point the weakness of the resource while not being "rude". Thus, I have to think critically, which my culture taught that disagreement is not a good way to approach.

As a result, the multiple contradictions make the critical thinking more interesting for me.

When people in the culture avoiding “the critical thinking” encounter this information cyberspace, the government based censorship is necessary. Remember I was not agree with the censorship at all, and tried my best to help friends approach the information freely with some technique. Now I changed my mind though this chemical reaction of “critical thinking” and “agreement thinking”. A society with majority without ability of filtering out the useless information, the control is necessary and it requires the leaders in power have the ability and wisdom of filtering the most effective information. Is this fooling people? As long as the controller is thinking about how to educate the people critical thinking, it will reach to the point of zero-filtering.

Here is the example. When A was volunteering at the travel agency in Hawaii, she was asked by a visiting scholar B from an ancient Asian country C about the strip-clubs in Honolulu. A was shocked by the “open mind” of C, since A thought C is a very traditional country and condemns the immorality. After A gave C a lesson of sex industry and human trafficking in the world, the injustice and ignorance of the “consumer” and the misunderstanding between cultures, C changed the mind of looking for the information of strip-clubs.

Critical thinking education is necessary, especially for the culture focusing on harmony and agreement, valuing obedience and humbleness. In this information cyberspace era, critical thinking is the inner power of creativity.

Here is the entry I posted at online discussion in class. The blue part is the revised updating after classmate’s feedback.

Understanding Information Literacy

Liu Liu

Prof. Mike Mencraca

ETEC 698 - Summer 2008

Introduction

This blog entry will review author’s understanding of information literacy and its operation (or lack thereof) in website development and second language teaching and learning, this entry will The second part of the entry briefly describes the website http://www.iosn.net/ strengths and weakness.

Information literacy

Information literacy is ability to locate the information and use the information effectively. In this special era of information, the internet makes the information more approachable comparing we all can become an expert in three months if we grape the information literacy. As the world is filled with commercial ideas and dominant by all fun and cool ideas, as the educator, it’s time to rethink about the classroom. Make the school, classroom as a "cool" place to be, teach students thinking different and critical, while having a sense of the globe.

Website Design – Open Source

The open source really makes all programming works easier and more productive. In Communication &　Information at UN website, there is a Portals/Directories for Open Source software & Free software where located most international open source systems information. The link is: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_freesoft/. Open source systems make the program more efficient and the software more acquirable, while free software breaks the economic barrier.

Take my personal experience as an example: three years ago I made the website for an international organization in three months. The whole progress of building a website included every single step of developing an online system and especially when the customer revised the requirement, it would take me forever to fulfill the updated requirement. Years later, the same organization asked me again to make the site, and this time with the open source content manage system Joomla and related open source systems, the whole website only took one quarter amount of time comparing with the former one, with more professional functions and more friendly interface. Open sources are not free software, but it definitely, but it is a huge step to bridge the injustice. As Stallman R. said on GUN website and I am quoting here:

The official definition of “open source software” (which is published by the Open Source Initiative and too long to cite here) was derived indirectly from our (Free software) criteria for free software. It is not the same; it is a little looser in some respects, so open source supporters have accepted a few licenses that we consider unacceptably restrictive of the users. Nonetheless, it is fairly close to our definition in practice.

Computer-assisted language learning System in Mandarin

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) originates from Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI). The philosophy of CAI or CALL is that the lessons should allow the learners to learn on their own using structured and/or unstructured interactive lessons. These lessons carry 2 important features: bidirectional (interactive) learning and individualized learning. CALL is not a method but a tool helping teachers to facilitate language learning process. The software assisting mandarin learning, the on-line mandarin learning communities, the instructional videos are different ways of CALL.

International Open Source Network http://www.iosn.net/

The International Open Source Network (IOSN) an initiative of the United Nations Development Programmer’s (UNDP) Asia Pacific Development Information Programmer (APDIP) and supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. The IOSN is a Center of Excellence for FOSS in the Asia-Pacific Region. It shapes its activities around Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) technologies and applications. Via a small secretariat based at the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok and three centers of excellence – IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island Countries), and IOSN South Asia, based in Manila, Suva and Chennai respectively, the IOSN is tasked specifically to facilitate and network FOSS advocates and human resources in the region.

The vision is that developing countries in the Asia-Pacific Region can achieve rapid and sustained economic and social development by using affordable yet effective FOSS ICT solutions to bridge the digital divide.

The only weakness of the website is the limitation of open source, not the free source.

Technically, the site is built by the open source CMS Plone (plone.net). It offers customization options like all other CMS. One of Plone's greatest strengths is its accessibility: Plone is built following government standards such that it is user friendly with people with disabilities. Although Plone is a very powerful and highly extensible CMS, it’s incredibly hard to learn to develop for because of the poor documentation.

Regarding the website IOSN, the translation of the website hasn't done yet, with the list of language choices. Removing the undone language choices will help the visitors to get the information effectively without confusion.

This is the data from Alexa traffic details for iosn.net on June 7, 2008:

Iosn.net users come from these countries:	Iosn.net traffic rank in other countries:
South Africa 20.8%	South Africa 52144,06297
India 14.2%	Iran 102,3114622
Iran 9.4%	Philippines 617614,213
Thailand 3.1%	Vietnam 3112665,296
Philippines 1.7%	Thailand 60140,482
Malaysia 1.0%	India 221,35478
Vietnam 0.7%	Malaysia 30334,463
Other countries 49.0%

From the table above, the IOSN is well-known in South Africa, but the place like China, East Asia and Pacific islands have not ranked in.

Here are the other places linked to IOSN website: Google Directory: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Open_Source/Advocacy/

BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3601710.stm

Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia-Pacific_Development_Information_Programme

Criteria

I will apply the same criteria in scoring them. Your blog includes the following:

1. You did it.

2. You emailed the URL.

3. Freebie. Come on, we have enough going on and I had to make one assignment less rigorous!

Shorts and Mormon

2008-06-18T01:00:00.001-10:00

Went to Morman school at north shore for an art show with my friend. He didn't tell me anything about the dress, so I chose the white shirt, with delicated lace, shorts cuts in the suit style. I thought it would be very formal in Hawaii: at least, not super short, not sleeveless, not over-stylish, not shabby.
...untill being stared after landing the school, I found there were something strange going on: I should never dress the shorts above the knee in Morman School, nor the sleeveless.

Oh gee, my fault! Forgot to look at the rules in Mormon. =I

At least, learned something:
----Google the rules/customs/cultures before attending to any religious events!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions

FW: Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner

2008-06-12T10:55:00.000-10:00

By Christina Laun [Original Post]

For those unfamiliar with the term, a learning style is a way in which an individual approaches learning. Many people understand material much better when it is presented in one format, for example a lab experiment, than when it is presented in another, like an audio presentation. Determining how you best learn and using materials that cater to this style can be a great way to make school and the entire process of acquiring new information easier and much more intuitive. Here are some great tools that you can use to cater to your individual learning style, no matter what that is.

Visual Learners

Visual learners learn through seeing and retain more information when it’s presented in the form of pictures, diagrams, visual presentations, textbooks, handouts and videos. Here are some Web resources that cater to those needs.

Mind Mapping

Get your ideas charted out in a visual format with these easy-to-use online brainstorming and organizational tools.

Bubbl.us: This flash-based mind mapping tools allows you to chart out your thoughts in a colorful format, share them with friends or embed them in blogs, websites and emails.
Free Mind: Mind mapping is easy and free with this Java tool. You’ll be able to manage your notes, lay out a paper and more completely online.
WiseMapping: You can access your mind maps from anywhere with this online tool. You can lay out words, pictures, ideas and more easily with WiseMapping.
Mindomo: Premium versions of this mind mapping tool come at a cost, but you can get access to the basic version for free. It allows you to add links, pictures and text to mind maps and share them over the net.
DeepMehta: This mind mapping tool is built around the idea of knowledge management and cognitive psychology. The open source tool allows sharing, emailing and even contains an embedded calendar.
MindMeister: Collaborate with your classmates on mind maps with this great online tool. The basic version is free and comes complete with the ability to create, share, import and export maps.
Mind42: The name of this tool represents "for two", and is indicative of the collaborative nature of this mapping tool. It can make it easy to keep track of your ideas, share them with friends and teachers and take them with you no matter where you are.
RecallPlus: Students can organize their notes, create flashcards, make use of 3D tools and more in this great mind mapping tool.
Mapul: This mind mapping program has basic and premium levels and allows users to map not only text but images and hyperlinks as well.
DebateMapper: If you’re struggling to understand a debate for your classes try creating a visual representation with this great mapping tool.
CMapTools: CMapTools is free for students to use and allows them to create and share all kinds of knowledge maps.
Thinkature: This site allows real-time collaboration on flow charts, diagrams and mind maps with features that include color organization and freehand drawing.

Charting and Diagrams

Love to put information into charts and diagrams? These tools can help you do that.

Gliffy: Gliffy makes it easy to lay out ideas in flow charts and diagrams or to create floor plans and technical drawings to help you better visually understand information.
FlowChart: Create great flow charts for your classes using this online tool, which comes complete with drawing tools and objects as well as collaborative tools.
DrawAnywhere: This online program allows you to create diagrams and flow charts to represent all kinds of information. Best of all, you can log in from anywhere to get access to your diagrams.
AjaxSketch: This web-based drawing tool makes it easy to not only create flow charts and diagrams but to do freehand drawing as well and you can use it right from Firefox.
XML/SWF Charts: Those familiar with XML will be able to turn their data into colorful and useful charts with this downloadable tool.
yEd: Is a very powerful graph editor and creation tool that can be used to quickly and effectively generate drawings and to create easily read and laid out graphs and diagrams.
Graphviz: If you’ve got a lot of information about the structure of a website or anything else for that matter, this tool can help you to easy map it out into a graph or network.
Kivio: Kivio easy to use diagramming and flowcharting application that is part of the KOffice suite of programs. It comes with features to network diagrams, create organization charts, build flowcharts and more.
Project Draw: This program is a feature-rich web-based vector drawing application that will allow you to create diagrams and graphs of any kind of information as well as making a variety of other kinds of drawings.
Best 4C: This Web-based tool allows you to create and share charts from anywhere, making it easier than ever to diagram and draw your ideas.
LovelyCharts: Charts created through this tool really can be lovely with full color capabilities and loads of graphics.

Videos and Photos

Find everything you’ll need to learn through videos and pictures with these tools.

Google Video: Google Video is chock full of educational videos that can help explain everything from how to use Second Life to learn to explanations of psychological illnesses.
YouTube College: Sign up with your individual college and share videos with fellow students on this College-based version of YouTube. You can post your own visual notes and slides or look at those of others.
Picasa: Picasa is Google’s answer to photo sharing and you can upload images from an art history or anatomy class and study them from anywhere on the Web.
Flickr: This social networking and photo posting site can be a great way to share images from a class with your classmates or look for images to back up your notes.
Scooch: Scooch is a Web-based slide show program that will allow you to post photos and make slide shows that you can share with others over the Web.
Perseus Digital Library: In need of visual representations of manuscripts or sculptures from ancient Rome and Greece? You can find tens of thousands on this online library and database.
Teachertube: Teachertube is a great place to find instructional videos on just about everything. You can learn about the formation of mountains, world history and economics on this useful educational site.
Screencast-o-Matic: Create a video or photo of your screen with this helpful online tool. It can be a great way to remember how to do tasks on the computer or just to share images online.
Jing Project: This tool allows you to snap a photo of your desktop, make recordings of your activities and email or IM them to anyone.
Visuwords: Text dictionaries don’t always give visual learners the explanations they need. This dictionary is graphically based, making it easy to see what concepts or ideas are represented.
KartOO: Along those same lines, Kartoo is a visual search engine, giving you results laid out in a networked chart so it’s easy to see how topics relate.

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners do best in classes where listening is a main concern. These learners prefer verbal lectures and discussions. Auditory learners can get a leg up on their learning with these Web tools.

Podcasts

Get all kind of supplementary education materials through these great podcast tools.

ProfCasts: Turn a PowerPoint presentation into a useful and portable podcast using this tool. It can be a great way to put class materials into a format you can bring with you anywhere.
Moodle: Post and share podcasts with an interactive online community using Moodle. You can not only post your own podcasts but get access to those of others that could provide educational value to you.
First Class: This collaboration and communication software offers a podcast publishing feature that can be great for educational purposes.
Podomatic: Find, share and publish your podcasts through Podomatic. You can search for existing podcasts that may cover topics you’re researching or that are relevant to your classes.
Podcast.net: Podcast.net provides a huge listing of podcasts from all over the Web. You’ll be able to find just about anything you need in an easy, audio format.
Educational Podcast Network: Narrow your search for podcasts down to those dedicated to education. You can learn about everything from math to dance right on your iPod.
PoducateMe: Don’t know the first thing about podcasting or how you can use it to make education a little easier? This site has all the information you need.

Presentation Tools

Put your notes or classroom information into an audio format with these handy apps.

Zoho Show: This great online tool allows you to create, edit and share presentations online making it easy to create interactive homework assignments or to organize your notes in an audio-visual format.
Eyespot: Users can create video mixes online and share them with others on this site and can even add effects to their graphics and music.
Thumbstacks: Thumbstacks allows users to create a web-based presentation or slide show and then share it with others.
SlideShare: This site takes more of a networked approach to creating presentations allowing you to post your presentations and browse those of other users.
Empressr: You can access your organized class materials or projects from anywhere with this tool and share them with friends and other classmates easily.
ThinkFree Show: If you are using PowerPoint to organize your class notes into a more visual and audio conducive format then you can take advantage of this site which makes it easy to take them to the Web.
AuthorStream: Another PowerPoint centered program, AuthorStream makes it simple to upload and share your presentations.
Toufee: If Flash is more your style you can use this online tool which gives you the tools needed to publish and play flash presentations and movies.
PhotoStory 3: Make your slides for class a little more interesting with this free program from Microsoft. You can add special effects or your own voice narration.

Audio Tools

Listen and edit your sounds and music with these tools.

Jamglue: Mix and edit your audio clips with this online tool and when you’re done, share the finished product with other online visitors in a YouTube like format.
Audacity: One of the most popular free audio editors out there, audacity is multi-featured and allows users to record and edit in all kinds of formats.
Wave Surfer: Visualize and manipulate sounds with this free and customizable tool.
Looplab: Create and manipulate short loops and phrases with this great sound editing tool.
LAME: This open source tool makes it easy to encode and manipulate MP3s.

Text Readers

Understand material better when it’s read out loud? These Web tools can do that for you.

Adobe Acrobat Reader: You may not know this, but Adobe Reader has a feature that will allow the contents of the document to be read out loud. It can be a great way for the more auditorially inclined to get through readings.
Read Please: Cut and paste text or type it directly into the input form on this site and the program will read it to you. It can be a very useful tool for making sure essays and projects are written correctly.
Text Reader: Here you’ll find a tool that will give you audio for any text you feed into it.
Expressivo: This simple text reader will give you a variety of audio readings when you paste or type text into the entry form.
ItCanSay: This site has a great online text reader and can also give you some help pronouncing difficult words that aren’t said like they’re spelt.
Midomi: While not quite a text reader, this tool couldn’t be left out of this list. It’s a search engine that is based on sound rather than text. It can be a more intuitive way to find things if you respond better to sounds.

Audio Books

Those who have trouble retaining information from printed words can listen to their assigned reading instead with help from these sites.

LibriVox: This site provides free audiobooks for books in the public domain and has numerous titles. If you don’t find what you want, see if you can volunteer to create a recording of the book yourself.
History and Politics Out Loud: Here you’ll find speeches, historical information and more in an audio format, making it easier to take in and absorb for the auditory learner.
Audible: This subscription site allows visitors to download from thousands of audio books, both best sellers and classics making it easy to find what you need for class.
Project Gutenburg: Books that are no longer under copyright can be found here and there is a special section for audio books, both read by computers and by humans.
Free Books.org: If your class is reading an older text you may be able to find a free version of it to listen to on this site. It contains recordings of numerous out of copyright books.

Kinesthetic Learners

Kinesthetic learners do best when they interact and touch things. They prefer a hands-on approach to learning and enjoy interacting with classroom materials and those around them. These tools can help keep these inquisitive learners busy.

Note Taking Tools

No matter what you’re reading or watching you can make it more interactive by taking notes and these tools can help.

MyNoteIT: This great tool allows students to take and store their notes online, edit them with the help of classmates, look up words or terms you don’t understand and keep track of things you need to do.
Google Docs: With this program from Google you can take notes online, save them, and even send them to your peers for collaboration.
Notely: Keep your class notes, to-do lists and more organized and easy to access with this site.
NoteMesh: This site allows students from the same class to share notes by creating a wiki, making it easy and practical to work together.
Stu.dicio.us: Here, students are able to actively organize their class materials, take and store notes, share information and even link to online reference sites.
ShortText: This is a very simple tool for taking notes online. Simply enter your text, hit save, and you’ve got an online note you can revisit anytime you like.
YourDraft: Take notes with this rich text editor and share and save them online.
Stickkit: Get an intelligent sticky note with this great online program. It looks at the text on your notes and can recognize important dates, bookmarks, emails and more, organizing them for you and making it easy to stay on top of everything.
SyncNotes: If you use a PDA this can be a great way to keep your notes accessible on both your main computer and your portable device.
JotCloud: If you’re the type that loves to put sticky notes all over everything then you’ll enjoy this online note taking tool. It allows you to create clouds of stickies anywhere you need them.
NoteCentric: Store and share your classroom notes with this innovative site. It keeps your notes organized so you can reference them later and you can easily access it through a Facebook account.

Bookmarking

Mark references for later while you’re researching with these tools.

del.icio.us: This online tool makes it easy to mark sites you find interesting to use for later research or to send to friends and project partners.
Clipmarks: Don’t waste time searching through webpages you’ve already read to find the content you needed. Instead, clip it out this this tool. You can clip and email bits to yourself as you go making online research more active.
Wizlite: Don’t just save online material for later, highlight and tag it just like you would a real book with this great online tool.
i-Lighter: Help make online reading a little more hands on with this highlighting program. It allows you to mark parts of online text you found interesting or want to revisit later.
Web-Chops: Web-Chops allows you to clip out any part of a webpage then save and share these clips. It can be a great way to study for tests or prepare for papers in a more interactive fashion.
Furl: This social bookmarking site makes it easy to keep track of webpages you were interested in, share them with classmates and keep them organized for research.
Ma.gnolia: Search through sites others have bookmarked as interesting or use the site to highlight your own information from the Web and keep it in an easy to find place.
Blinklist: Make lists of sites that are relevant to whatever you’re working on with Blinklist. If you have a blog, you can even have the links appear automatically on it, making them super easy to access later.

Interaction

Get involved with the material with these online applications.

Flash Card Machine: This site allows you to create web-based flash cards to study the information you have for class using text and pictures.
Quia: With Quia, you’ll be able to create your own online quizzes and educational games to help you study your materials in a more interactive fashion.
Quizlet: Quizlet makes it easy to study things like vocabulary words with it’s online study tools. You can make quizzes, use your friend’s or browse existing flashcards on the site.
Pauker: This open source program will test your short and long term memory with a system that makes it easy to create and reuse flashcards and quizzes.
Learner.org Interactives: Need a more interactive explanation of a concept from class? You’ll find dozens of educational ones here that can help explain geology, chemistry, math and more.

Collaboration

These chatting and networking tools can make it easy to interact with classmates and friends.

Meebo: This website allows students to IM from anywhere, even computers without the software installations for major programs like AIM, Yahoo!, MSN and more.
Campfire: Here students can create password protected chat rooms to discuss their assignments, collaborate on projects or just chat. Best of all, you won’t need to install a thing.
CollegeRuled: Students can set up class message boards, create to-do lists and interact with classmates on this site.
Campusbug: This site provides a social learning network where students can interact and chat with each other while asking questions and getting answers about class materials.
Facebook: One of the most popular social network sites for students, Facebook provides a place where classmates can come together to chat about assignments, keep up with their lives and post links to sites, videos and photos.
Backpack: Backpack allows students to organize their notes, to-do lists and calendars while sharing information and working with classmates.
The Campus Center: Students can get together and network on this site and also have access to note taking and spreadsheet programs.
JotSpot: Working in a group just became easier with this online wiki tool that allows students to share notes, project ideas and information in an easily accessible format.
WebBrush: Collaborate in a fun and creative way with this tool that lets students send drawings and graphics to one another.
Grouptivity: This site allows students to use email to start a group discussion about class projects and assignments or just to complain about their professors.

答...变化 changes

2008-06-08T23:19:00.001-10:00

所有同学看到我上网, 都在问同一个问题:　我有何变化:

还是一副女孩形象, 得意于大脑发达;

知道甜食和垃圾食品是毁坏身体的东西;

不再熬夜,知道健康第一;

明白祈祷的力量, 学会每天定时祈祷;

懂得自然和超自然并学着在生活中去练习圣经上的真理;

喜欢上hiking (居然找不到口语词汇翻译), 难度越高越令我兴奋;

好少有机会和时间跳舞;

不再盲目女权, 学会和男生做朋友;

确定无疑自己是异性恋, 鄙视homophobia;

知道晚上不可以单独在校园行走(if I don't know Kongfu)

save your data - before the hard drive crashes

2008-05-29T09:09:00.000-10:00

Hard drive just died? Lost your Flash disk? Laptop got stolen?

We need online banks to secure our virtual possession -- data!

Here are some ways to avoid the natural disaster in the virtual world:

1. Online hard disk (online storage).

After you finish your work, upload the files to an online hard disk, same like you put your money in the bank for the safety. When the 10 Gigabit Ethernet is popular, the online hard disk will play the similar role of bank in virtual world.

Recommend some good online storage service:

name	Price / service	pro	con	Summary	Rate
Skydirve.live.com	5 GB of free online storage, with a max file size of 50MB.	Use personal, group sharing or publishing. Supporting secure Socket Layers (SSL). Cooperating with live.com.	Works well with Firefox 1.5 or higher, or Internet Explorer 6 or higher.	Reliable and fast.	9
Box.net	Free for up to 1GB storage,	drag-and-drop uploading; subfolders are preserved when downloaded in zip form; good sharing capabilities with blog integration	Rendering Errors in Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox; Sharing files requires recipient to register.	Affordable online storage service with a easy interface and powerful sharing features.	8
dropboks.com	Free 1GB storage, with a max file size of 50MB.	simple	No subfolders; no drag and drop	Simple and clean.	7
omnidrive.com	Free for 1GB of storage	Unlimited file size. online editing tools from Zoho Office	a few bugs		7

2. Google doc – online office

For those who experienced the hard disk crash/stolen will appreciate this online office tool as a replacement of hard disk. It cannot replace the office’s advanced functions, but it’s powerful for text editing and spreadsheets, in both collaborative group work as well as personal use.

Here is the official help document: http://docs.google.com/support/?hl=en

For the visual and auditory learner, the video tutorial maybe more helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_play_list?user=GoogleDocsCommunity

3. Email yourself after finish the work (yahoo mail and Gmail have a good feature with organizing and searching emails).

Since I print at the library, I use my email as the transferring station. (Flash disk can transfer files, as well as virus.)

Here is a snapshot of a well-used Gmail account. If you are using gmail, please try the “label” and “filter”.

It helps with organizing and searching your email.

4. Buy an extra hard drive and flash disk.

But the whole point is – security. We never know when the disk will be crashed or stolen, maybe tomorrow, or next minute. That’s the reason I recommend the online service. The service company will help back up our data every day and minimize the loss in case of the disaster.

Good luck with your online storage journey.

From protecting animal to anti-made-in-China

2008-05-11T03:04:00.000-10:00

peace...^^V...

The video is extremely sanguinary.
Don't watch it alone if you are : lachrymose, vegetarian or tries to be vegetarian, love natures.
Do not watch it at all if you are under 18.
http://www.youtube.com/v/_uN5fC-kdUQ&hl

--------------------------------

change, we all are crying for.
strong, I pretend to be.
pray, if we can do nothing but.
peace, God put this word in my dream.
---------------------------------

Often, What I heard:
----poison in Chinese doll, dangerous food, population and poverty, politics controlling, human rights, eating everything, blah blah blah...

Always, What I felt:
----Oops for the polititians...The system is not made by the present government leaders, but left from generations before. everyone knows there are something wrong, someone decided the revolution and the new policies, no one is patient for this gradually developing and thanks for the international pressure, the studious characteristics in Chinese people and the humble heart in Chinese culture.
----The Chinese people are the same people like you.

Now, what I want to state:
1. If you love the animals, stop consuming the leather products.
If you love the animals very much, stop eating them.
If you love the animals than human, pls feel free to contact me, I would like to help you walk through this.
2. Chinese are not equal to sanguinary people. There are more vegetarians in China, since the Buddhism morality and Daoism theory.
If unfortunately you went to a Dog Meat Restaurant in Beijing and still feel vomitous, I am sorry. I have a list of the best vegetarian restaurants if you are interested in.
3. Do not buy any product from slavery labeled places! There are child-free products out there to choose and groups of people and organizations in the frontier aiming for the slavery-free world.
Join the abolitionist instead of anti-Chinese. It will be more fun to anti slaver and slave traders.
4. I still have two questions for the reliability of the brutal clip in the video:
why the butcher is out of the scene all the time? I want to find him and convert him.
who made the video clip? I am not able to sit by and watch the video by myself. I have to close my eyes,frown badly and drag the control bar and I am frighten by the film maker.
5. PEACE...
I suggest not reading the stuffs bellow for saving time.
Those are emotional and unconditioned reflex right after watching that video.

Finally, I chose to pray. (thannks for Jeannie's warning last night.)

--------------------------------

The part of the video about the fur-process was actually one of the reasons I chose to be a vegetarian way back. The fur-process video was really popular in 2005 and most of my friends were panic & commiserative for the animals. A number of my friends promised not consuming anything made from fur. Personally, I chose to be a vegetarian radically for a year, not only from the video, but also the compassion for the animals and the great Buddhist people around me in China. The impact in personal level is huge and immediate.
Now, since the video brought out the issue 3 years later, I searched google and it's amazing that the system wide changes were followed after the video published as listed at the end of the article (if you can read Chinese). I agree there are tons of problems right now in Chna, but I believe that peoples' soul are longing for good, though fleshes are weak.
Change!!!

--------------------------------------

Honestly, I haven't been labeled as a vegetarian for a while, and the difficulty is at the nutrition side as well as at turndowning the kind friends while dining out.
Now, I submit the desire of meat to the love of the creature. I fast on meat so that there will be a change.
I really appreciate the video.
--- It strengthened my soul to have a full control over the flesh.
--------------------------

One thing I have to say :
is the video above speaking in a fair and square tone?
I am not able to be absolutely neutral in any issue about China, but I will try my best to evaluate the video without prejudgement.
---------------------------------------

The way this video carrying the message, combines with the hatred specifically towards the Chinese people. Chinese People are demonized and generalized as a group of uncivilized and sanguinary people in the video.
People in China are also people, there are good and bad, like every other places in the world.
If we make our decision of consuming-behavior from this one Chinese butcher's mental aberration, we are illogical. If there are something wrong or bad about all the Chinese people, which make us to hate the products by them, we are looking down upon Chinese. If we feel Chinese products are bad and Chinese people are evil, we are in the danger zone of racialism.
We learned what the racialism will bring, the same thing as the butcher was doing in the video...(eyes wet.)
Otherness and fear of difference are the root of hatret. History taught human to be peaceful and we, people who are called, have to realize the proper way of presenting the message of justice and respect, instead of anger.
If the world media keeps spreading this kind of demagogical message with anger and putting the similar content in educational materials, the hatred and worry the video carries will cause the prejudgment and racialism psychologically and bring the disaster at the end.
We didn’t know how divine and friendly the Hawaiian people are until recently, but the history textbook misrepresented for years. We didn’t realized the slavery was wrong until civil war.
We didn't know and we thought we knew and then we screwed things up.
we don't know!
Please, be awared of the power & responsibility we are carring when we spreading the message.
-------------------------------------

Then, look at the purpose of the video: not killing the animal, or not buying things from China? They are mixed, and this mixing is illogical and hilarious.
If we love the animals, we would naturally choose to practice the things as I mentioned above: not consuming any leather products, or radically chose to be a vegetarian. The hilarious choice the reporter suggests in the video is to find a better way to kill someone for my own comfort.
To make it clearer:
Now, I really want to drink a cup of hot tea. If I choose Long Jing Dragon Well, I need to kill a person by gun; if I choose English breakfast tea, I have to kill a person by high-tension chair. Thank God I have a choice of making this person die in a better way!
(tears -> hollow laugh and sorrow)
The whole point is to stop consuming the leather products because they are adorable animals and invaluable lives!

Secondly, if it’s about not buying products from China, I am really happy to hear that. I don’t care about the number of the GNP; I care about the reality of people’s life. The workers were probably slaved in the factory, working sixteen hours a day for the shoes we were wearing in the luxury party; the sister chose to give up school because the family could only support her brother’s tuition and she gave in because she believed the value of the; the young girls went to the city to make a better life in a way of selling their body to the wealthy men, supporting the family and school facilities back home…
It’s heartbrokenly sad. I have no strength to explain how wet my keyboard is right now and I have no appetite to point out the behind scene purpose of the perfect mixing in the video for demonizing a peoples group, but
I stand up and vote against any slavery products.

Yes, yes, yes, I urge you to stop buying products from China, so that young people from rural China will go back to the farm and have a content villatic life; don’t buy any products from China, so that Chinese people can work less and spent more time with family, with lovers, with people who are really valued in their life; don’t buy anything or bring anything to China, so that Chinese people can keep Chinese culture as a beauty of this diversity world; don’t buy anything from China, so that Chinese people may slow down the pace and think about the meaning of life, the truth of the world and the reality of the Creator God.

----------------------------------

Wake up, you chosen ones. Join in the global social justice, to change our media, change our educational mateirals, change our mind sets, bring the freedom to the nations and people.

---------------------------------

Links:
The news in Xin Hua Net: http://news.xinhuanet.com/st/2005-04/05/content_2788199.htm
The news at QQ (similar to AOL or MSN or Yahoo): http://news.xinhuanet.com/st/2005-04/05/content_2788199.htm
The comment in Xin Hua Net; http://news.xinhuanet.com/comments/2005-04/06/content_2788576.htm
The video at Sina: http://you.video.vnet.cn/b/284782-1220422263.html
The report from Wild Animal Organization in China: http://www.cnwildlife.com/Article/Class1/Class2/200504/20050407215524.html

-------------------

ETEC 414 - Last post

2008-05-09T17:44:00.000-10:00

Everything is updated:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~liuliu/courses/etec414
:)

Slow pace black-white animated short

2008-05-09T07:52:00.000-10:00

Was just playing with the AFX and the video is amazing!
Slow pace black-white animated short?
... There is no rule for creativity...

Change your world Hawaii conference poster 1, 2

2008-05-01T01:35:00.000-10:00

the conference time and venue is affirmative, but we still need to wait for the speakers' confirmation.
I wish I could be more creative ...
Sign...the laptop seems overloaded for the size A1 poster.
en...next time, vector graphics only...

Ed. Journal -- the last class - homosexuality

2008-04-30T15:41:00.000-10:00

From the final presentation, a number of students chose homosexuality as their report topic.
Some are passionate, with tears;
some are logic, with Bible quotes;
some are "none of my bussiness", with some post-modern attitude.

I didn't say anything radical or prorevolutionary, though I really wanted to.
--- it's nothing about change, but love and healng.

Remember the time when someone told me I was a lesbian, for I checked out more girls than he did at the club and never danced with guys.
Remember the time in Shanghai hanging out with my best friend Snew and imagined about our own "orientation".
Remember the time I had the chance to sneak on that community and participate in the "academic" research with friend, and figured out it's not cool to be a gay, it's all about brokeness.

I wish I wasn't ignorant, so I could speak the truth and healing.

Broken hearts, in different ways,
Different inperfection, in the same tone.
As an outsider, it's easy to demonize the otherness,
As an insider, it's easy to be blind or panic.
All are broken,
All need Grace and Love.

Help them....

where is the problem? I am the problem.

2008-04-27T21:45:00.000-10:00

"where is the problem? I am the problem." It's from the autor of Blue like Jazz and now I can totally understand why he gave up the social justice work.

Our passion to serve the justice starts from a documentary named Not for Sale. We are heart-struck while noticing the slaved population and injustice around the world. All what the other people have done really encouraged us to put into some action for the justice. It begins with passion and we believe it will end with fruit. But social justice is such a huge topic. I have no idea how to begin: it's like there is a problem right there, disordered, dark, but no way to clear it out.
So, I couldn’t stop asking myself some basic questions: Where is the problem?
1. I started looking for the problems among communities and people groups and I figured out that every society has problems of injustice and they exist from the beginning of the civilization. Not only societies, but also single person, we all can be the source of the problem and I am the hugest problem because I know myself the best! And China is the hugest problems since I know China the best, and Christians are the hugest problem since I know Christians the best.
...take my home for example: the minorities H.R., welfare for the people from rural China, floating population, Hukou policy, family violence, people with disabilities, … it's too heavy to think about and I felt from my own point of view, the place I called hometown was such a messy in social justice, how can I serve the social justice internationally? Then I reached the point that if I am not free from anxiety, how can I be able to bring some justice hope for the weak and mistreated people?
It's hard. And it's heavy. Can I be that strong, be free from things so that I can state myself as free being?
Easy to say than practice...=)

2. So I decide to think lighter and do something fast & good: website & poster. It's the easiest way to contribute directly to the awareness of the social justice and it's the most efficient way for my personal preference. I can tell people: look, there is a problem we ignore and there is a hope to ensure; I can care about this and you can do the same. I believe that awareness is the beginning of the change. Still, really admire and appreciate those who are serving in the frontier of injustice.
3. Justice and charity.
Before, I thought charity can change the world and I still believed so. But justice seems in a higher position. Even they are similar -- both are for good changes, but they are very different. As Jordan Seng quote from his friend that social justice is system wide fixing while charity is single personal supporting. Justice is carrying power.
It's easy for women to put effort on charity because women are emotional and personal (which is the beauty of the soul). But Mother Teresa of Calcutta's journal told us that charity is challenging.
There is a good example to show that charity is individual: a lady travelled to Africa and found out a kid was sold for slavery by the parents. So she bought the kid back and returned him to his parents and she started an organization to buy back the children from the traffickers, return them home and educate the parents. I would have done the same thing as the lady did if I was in that situation, but would also feel awful since what I had done also engaged into that slavery trading chain.

so, charity is individul while Social justice worker may bring the system wider solutions … but sometimes: it will turn to be : ----

4. Communism! It jumps into my mind and I don’t like that system really. I was told it's good and I knew it's good because it's a system promising abundent life for everyone, but after I read some stuffs from ourside world, it sounded like violently forcing people to be justice even if they don’t want to.
Yes, communism is aiming for building the heaven on earth and the theory is beautifully inspired by the Eden, but the result turns to be painful and violent. To be honest, only two of my friends are faithful communists, my parents may doubt the communism & never told me about communism, but they are content with what they have from confucius philosophy, and my grandpa lead all his life like a saint.
So mentally, if people believed in communism, it's a kinda heaven on earth.
But the fight between Tibet and Communist in history looked actually like a war between religeous group!
So, social justice is powerful and misuse of this power may cause disarster.

-------------------------------------------------
Didn’t know it’s that hard…
I should wear a shirt with “where is the problem?” in front and "I am the problem" in the back...=)

ETEC 414 HW: video

2008-04-18T10:46:00.000-10:00

:)
Let's relax...(whew...i am disabled to be relaxed)

By Brian and Liu

^_^

ED. Journal - Book Rethinking Classroom: video

2008-04-17T09:00:00.000-10:00

The article is not very inspired, simplely because the the videos list there are not really attrative if I am a high school student.
I appreciate the video in class about homosexuality in classroom: The producer cut all different injustice moments at film, advertisement, or pubilc speech to show that we are not born with the homophobia but taught so by the media. And we need to rectify the mistake we already made. Video is powerful AND that's why I choose this article to read. And those videos with injustice message are way more interesting than the movies with the justice title, if the target audience is youth. I feel we need to educate the public speaker, the movie stars and the producers about social justice instead of students in the classroom...
En... I got the list of movies I have to watch now. =P

I like the strategies by Bill Bigelow and Linda Christensen.
More importantly...I found the organization Teaching for Change( the organization to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write and change the world...).
It's so amazing to find out that other people are doing the same thing...
great hope...=)

FW: Spoken Word:Paradise Interrupted

2008-04-16T01:47:00.000-10:00

The poem below is written by Kacie.
Met her today afternoon and read this story as well. I knew she would write something and it's just way faster than I expected.
The story is about the woman named Almira who survived the 1954 nucler tests in the Marshall Islands. She was 10 years old at the time and has been living on Oahu ever since. She and her children (the few that survived birth) still suffer from the effects of radiation.

"God likes to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. "

Shane Claiborne

Our voices have been silenced by their pens
our people have been hushed by their history,
so I'll whisper the radioactive story
of how I came to be a scientific experiment
in the laboratory of the South Pacific
and I pray the truth will spread
faster than the cancer in my body.

An old Marshallese from Rongelap,
I was born in the nucleus
of an atomic age -
a medical marvel
plucked from that island inferno
deep in the exploding sea.

Without evacuating us first,
the military detonated Bravo,
history's most lethal hydrogen bomb,
one thousand times more powerful
than the deadly sack they opened
over the homes in Hiroshima.

The contaminated mist blew downwind
and infiltrated every breath
as the archipelago sunk
under a heavy plume, bright and hot,
the earth had hurled itself
into the core of the sun.
A white blanket of hot air descended,
shadowed by thick gray particles,
and I fell back with the others,
coughing and gasping,
needles over my whole body.

The navigators of the steel naval ship
came for us, not caring
that their massive chemical cloud
blurred God's starry map.

They picked us from our land -
spoiled fruit from a poisoned tree -
our skin dry as coconut husk,
our milk and meat saturated
with radioactive chemicals.

The nurses in the clinic
poked at the bubbles on my skin,
scrubbed its raw, glistening craters,
and washed the matted ash from my hair.

Over the years they examined me
as I lay on sterile beds -
an aging stain on white sheets.
They monitored the mound
that grew tall on my thyroid
and they delivered my son,
born silent and still as my homeland.
He looked like a bunch of grapes,
a pile of jellied limbs.

My tears and their money
never filled the tragic void
that only God could,
for he has promised me
an uninterrupted paradise.

** Even though this is history and not news, please pray for Almira and all the other survivors and children and grandchildren who continue to suffer. (Some children are born with scarcely any bones in their arms and legs, leaving only stocking-like limbs of flesh. Locals call them "jelly babies." ) Only God can take them to a paradise that is of eternal peace.

ED. Journal - group working

2008-04-15T06:46:00.000-10:00

There is a saying that "one Chinese is a dragon, two Chinese are moth. " to show how bad Chinese people are at group working.
It's true. Group working is an art and is hard.
In Chinese culture, most of time, a successful group working turns to be a great leadership model. Here is the graphic about group work created by a Chinese German Liu Yang about how different the culture is.

Blue is leadership in Germany and Red represents China.

well...so the problem comes up when we were working as a group:
It's a communication issue...not in the intellectual level, but a mental level: I will ignore the communication if the work can be done by myself without communicating. --- It's bad and I keep reminding myself about that: communicate! people won't know what you are thinking if you don't tell them.

I will suggest the Chinese student union to put the "group working" in the "new student orientation" with a title "Don't be moth if you can be a dragon".

So, from the PAMO project, I learned a lot from group working. It's all about communication and organization and our role and attitude will vary according to the time, place and people in the groups.

It's fun to work in group actually...

"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
- Tuesdays With Morrie

Randomly Cute

2008-04-04T13:46:00.001-10:00

Who is on a Daniel Fast?? ^_^

Found the cutest website!
http://www.cuteoverload.com

ED. Journal - Otherness

2008-04-01T07:58:00.000-10:00

Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought.
The class was disposed by Buddha, sculpture, paintings and decorations.
We were asked to choose an object or rather let an object choose me.
Then we were asked to do an exercise in empathy and answer the questions list below:
What is it about this object that drew you to it? List seven adjectives that describe this object. If you were able to enter into a conversation with this object, what three questions would you ask? Now, imagine that you are the object and you are looking at yourself through its eyes. What three questions would you ask yourself? Reflect on this experience. How is it related to multiculturalism? How could you adapt this experience to an elementary or secondary classroom?

I chose the Buddha bronze, since it caught my attention at the beginning. It’s only the head part of a Buddha, sounds scary, but not at all when you really see it.

Ok, that’s all what I got from this Buddha: old, broken, peaceful, calm and scary.

I was thinking about other religions and the conflicts among religions. The other day I got a concept of “Community of Gods” and the proof is in the Genesis 1 in the Bible: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So, if Gods is a plural + if you trust the Bible, God should be a community. I knew little about Buddhism and I was told that all other religions are evil. In this otherness case, I am facing some so called evil statue and try to communicate with him. (I felt I could start a cult or something crazy...)

Totally awkward.

Anyways, what we were doing was to understand otherness, so for some reason I started commiserating this Buddha statue. So generally, I asked what his name is and where he is from, w hat he is doing in this world. Of course, there wouldn’t be any answers from the statue.

But how good is Christians? Jesus is absolutely perfect, the Bible is awesome, but the Christians are notorious. Probably that’s why we call all other religions are evil: because the follower can’t follow the God’s good will 100%. Or because the followers of Christ have some selfish purpose to achieve while defacing other belief system.

My 3 questions are:
Who are you? Why you are here? Where are you going to?
The buddah bronze of course is not going to answer me, but when I was really asking this buddah bronze, I successfully avoided judging the buddah as I could have done as usual for the other religion.
So instead of saying: oh, that's a buddah, the God of nothingless and compassion and they believe they are from nowhere and going to nowhere, I keep the questions open to him and leave it as a question without pre-judgement...
GREAT!!!

Then, the other exercise bothered me the whole day : “exercise in empathy”.
I will look at myself through the buddah's eyes and ask myself the questions.
So: '
"How mature do you think you are?"
"Wanna be my friend?"

It's way too weird...
I just learned that maturity means the willingness of changing the mental map and chaning the way of old thinking. Sometimes, it's accepting otherness and sometimes it's sacrifice.
En...how mature I am?
... It's hard but I wanna be more mature. ...
En...be his friend?
That's strange...to keep normal...I decide to give up thinking this.

-----------------------------------

For classroom, it's role play:
like role play for African American, role play for Hawaiian, role play for poeple from mushall islands, role play as a minority, role play for all kinds...

=)

It's an easy way to understand the otherness...

Ed Journal - Controversial Issues in Classroom: homosexuality

2008-03-11T16:17:00.000-10:00

Interesting class today!
The students in the video are amazing! I was inspirited by the youngest class, by students’ open mind and pure heart. Actually, teaching this controversial issue in American school is necessary, simply because the majority of the society is trying to alienate and demonize homosexuality. I am glad that my home contry doesn't have this homophobias and I felt safe to hang out with gay friends back home simplely because they are nice people and understand more about this ungraceful world. so maybe we just need to tell kids that gays are people and it's not right be be against towards any group of people who are different or wierd.

So if I am told to teach a class/ prepare a curriculum on homosexuality, sympathy and compassion will be the theme, for if the orientation is not human's choices, gays are the minority of minority and they need more grace and love.
1.Brainstorm the words related with gay/homosexuality.
2.Watch the video clips about homophobia: history tragedy, media exaggerating and politic speech, etc.
3.Other related topics: AIDS, social justice, religion comparing, etc, depending on the students’ level.
4. Invite gay couples.

---------------------------
About homosexuality and Christian, I can imagine a Bible scholar will say that how a man is supposed to be and homosexuality is sin.
9 year old students tell us that gay love is love beyond everything.
19 year old students will tell us that homosexuality is nasty.
our own mind is filthy & poluted when we say that's nasty.
But man is not perfect and the world is not Eden. Bible only mentions six times about homosexuality. If we can be homophobia, we should be rich-phobia, for the Bible mentions 60 times about money and possession.

Why not caring more about justice and love, than sin.
--------------------------------

Postscript:
From the final presentation, a number of students chose homosexuality as their report topic.
Some are really passionate, with tears; some are logic, with Bible quotes; some are "none of my bussiness", with the post-modern attitude.
I didn't say anything radical or prorevolutionary --- it's nothing about change, but love and healng.

Broken hearts, in different ways,
Different rebellions, in the same way.
As an outsider, it's easy to "demonize" the otherness,
As an insider, it's easy to be panic and blind.
As in God, nothing but love.

....God help...

CLEAH Website Unvealing

2008-03-11T06:22:00.000-10:00

CLEAH is much easier than Confucius site, less coding.
:I
Thanks for those who turned the copy right to the left.
Finally we can stand on the shoulder of Giants ... without concern.
:)
Still need to polish the details and clarify the copy left, but all in all my job is almost done....almost...
Huge release...
HTTP://WWW.CLEAH.ORG:

ED. Journal - Difference between Germany and China

2008-03-10T07:19:00.000-10:00

Blue is Germany while red is China
=)

作者簡介：About the Author:
劉揚（女）1976年生於北京。13歲隨家人遷居德國。
17歲時被德國柏林藝術大學設計系錄取，師從於霍爾格 .馬諦斯，獲碩士及大師班學位。
畢業後曾先後在倫敦、柏林、紐約工作及生活。
零四年在柏林開始自己的設計工作室。
曾任教於荷蘭設計中心、中國中央美術學院設計系、英國格拉斯歌美術學院，
並在國際設計研討會及博覽會講座。
劉揚的作品曾多次在國際設計大賽中獲重要獎項，
作品被國際多家博物館展覽並收藏。

藍色是德國紅色是中國

etec 414 - classroom exercise

2008-03-07T09:39:00.000-10:00

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Ed. Journal - Identification Map 2

2008-03-04T12:47:00.001-10:00

It's interesting that the class we did this mapping activity.
1. I was suprised by the number of Christians in the class.
2. As you listen to others present, their identity maps suggest things that you might add to your own map?
Yes, add the parents and friends under beneath the ID map. Add the *heart* in the center, which means love.
As we know now, if we do ID Map again, it will be different.
3. In class, someone said that everyone seemed “pride” when they were talking about themselves. It’s not pride; it’s the confidence before standing in front the public.
4. The ID Map can be actually a game in classroom: we can talk about the names: what is the students’ name and what name the students wish to have.
5. Class is a community while MCE is about getting to know other people.

Blog Moving + Desktop Blogging Software

2008-03-02T01:05:00.000-10:00

Moved part of my old blog from Space Live to Blogger with a desktop blogging software Zoundry.

Google is indeed superior to Microsoft online...(just personal opinion. don't take it serious. I *heart* microsoft 2)...

Unfortunately it can only move 20 entries from Space Live ot Blogger...such a big sigh...

Actually, none of the desktop blogging software has as strong relocating feature as the Zoundry.

(Windows users can take a look at : w.bloggar, BlogJet, Qumana and Windows Writer if it interests you. )

For more information about moving blog, desktop publishing, or desktop blog software, please check these articles:

Desktop Blog Editor Comparison by Joe Anderson

Windows Desktop Blogging Software Lee Odden

Do you use Desktop Blogging Software by Thomas McMahon

Technorati : Desktop Blogging Software, Move blog, blogging

Ed. Jornal - Poverty - Houseless shelter

2008-03-01T22:38:00.000-10:00

It’s Sunday morning, joined with my resistant assistant and some other people in our building to the women & children’s homeless shelter, serving the breakfast. (So lucky to have a faithful brother as R.A.)
“There are 300 people in this homeless shelter and there are another 500 in the waiting list.” The manager of the shelter told us.
When we got there, people were already lied up out of the shelter. Then we signed up as with a volunteering card, went to the top of the building and started serving the food.
I thought I was prepared, but I overestimated myself.
Thanks for a lady coming to me. She returned the two eggs: "I don't eat egg. Please keep it for other people."

Wake up...houseless people are just people, same like all of us but different in the experiences and opportunities. I came to serve, not to struggle with my own thought.

Though I till can't understand Children in homeless shelter, will keep serving every first Sunday.
Hope there will be some related organization to help those children getting what they deserve.

BTW, their breakfast is really good: 2 eggs, muffin, bread, smash potato, bread, ham...

2008-03-01T18:07:00.000-10:00

Interesting video...:)

Technorati : Creative Commons, copyright

ETEC414 HW - graphics exercise ETEC HW

2008-02-29T15:56:00.000-10:00

Graphics Homework Picture Set in Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/artemisll/

1. Rule of Thirds, Breathing Room, Color, Contrast, Hue, Crop, - Woman Working on Farm

PIC1. Rule of Thirds, Breathing Room, Color, Contrast, Hue, Crop, - Woman Working on Farm

PIC 1.o. Original Picture of the Farming Woman

The photo was taken in village in China.
I was attracted by the farming woman far away from me and tried to take picture of her.
Though I tried to zoom in, she was still not that visible in my picture.
Then I chose the highest resolution for this picture so that I could be able to crop her in focus later.
As you can see, the next picture is the original one.

The first one was processed through: cropping, adjusting color, contrast and color hue.
I cropped the picture under the Three of Thirds rule and made the main character on the 2nd horizontal and 2nd vertical lines, with a proper leading room in front of her.

2. Framing, Rule of Third, Reflection - The beautiful Village

The Picture was taken in Feng Huang China when I was volunteering in summer vocation at colledge.
The tree and boat on the left side frame the picture nicely.
The horizontal water line falls on the first horizontal line in Rule of thirds.
The reflection in water falls on the second horizontal line in Rule of thirds.

3. Rule of Third, Leading lines, Triangles - Water Mountain Sky

The picture was taken in the mountain area in west Hunan China when I was volunteering in summer vocation at colledge.
The river generates the leading line and leads the viewer's imagination into the back of that mountain.
The two mountains are both in the shape of triangle, so are the water and the sky.
The bottom line of mountains falls into the second horizontal line in Rule of thirds and the top line of the mountains falls into the first horizontal line.

4. Unique Point of View and Focal B&W - Helpless Child

PIC 4. Unique Point of View and Focal B&W - Helpless Child

PIC 4.o. Original Picture - helpless child

The photo was taken in mountain village in West Hunan China when I was volunteering for an NGO.
The parents of this child left home for work and this kid is taken care of by the neighbors and community right now.
To make the kid more vulnerable, I chose the low angel to make the object weak.
To emphasize the kid, I used Picasa -> Effect -> Focal B&W.
In addition, the black and white background made the environment more inclement.

5. Crop, Focal W&B, Rule of Third - Taxi in the middle of the road

PIC 5. Crop, Focal W&B, Rule of Third - Taxi in the middle of the road

PIC 5.o. Original Pic of Taxi in the middle of the road

These two pictures used : Crop and Highlight the taxi with the focal tool.

6. Color adjustment in PS- Bund

The color in last picture looks really blue. Use PS for the color, brightness and level adjustment. The edited one looks more real, with less blueish.

The color in last picture looks really blue.
Use PS for the color, brightness and level adjustment.
The edited one looks more real, with less blueish.

Ed. Journal - Identification Map 1

2008-02-26T09:32:00.000-10:00

Will you become teacher?
I always hesitated to answer that kind question. Teacher’s responsibility is more than parents, for teachers role is n:1 while parents probably are 2:1. In addition, I truly believe that what I am teaching will present who I am. Teaching is not merely planting the knowledge, but also with the personality and characteristics. If I don’t know who I am, I won’t be sure whether I can teach or not.

The ID map is necessary for all teachers, just to know themselves before starting this career. Even though the ID map is always changing, but as we grow up, the ID map will be less important than the beginning.
The ICE berg is quite interesting. Culture is not only what it’s about the river, but more over, most part is under the water, limited by the behavior and product of the people or patterns in people’s life. The hidden part is the shared beliefs, feelings and values of a community of people.

Picture of iceberg. by Ralph Clevenger, 1999

Adapted from Gary Weaver & On line resource

The iceberg won’t remain the same – like the ID map I drew when I was in China is different from the map here. The map I drew the first time came to Hawaii is not the same like the map I drew it now.
I just read an article from Paul Hiebert about the culture shock. It’s quite true. The culture shock is a sense of cultural disorientation in a different society. In time, a person learns to operate in a new society; his level of adjustment rises; and he is acculturated into the new culture (See Figure 2.7, Paul Hiebert, http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert ). In the process, he becomes a bicultural person, who has come to grips with the issues of cultural parochialism and relativism.

(Christianity is supraculture and not a foreign religion – will be discussed in the another entry. It’s an interesting topic)

- All these for one purpose:
1. Know ourselves -> because teaching = telling who you are
2. Be sensitivity for students’ culture background and slow down the judgment.

Technology Lesson Topic and Standards - Liu Liu

2008-02-22T13:33:00.000-10:00

Mandarin Class

Performance Objectives

Given access to a computer with Skype, the 2nd year high school language student will interview a mandarin speaker in China and make an oral presentation that follows the checklist

A. Audience: 2nd year high school language student

B. Behavior: interview a mandarin speaker in China and make an oral presentation

C. Condition: given access to a computer with Skype

D. Degree: follows at least 5 items in checklist

(Checklist of the interviewing content: Name, gender, age/grade, educational background, hobbies, family members, future goal, other)

Domain of Learning: Cognitive

HCPS III Standard(s) - Content Area Standard:

1. Standard 1: INTERPERSONAL: Use target language to engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions. - In the class, the students will engage in conversation individually through Skype to a mandarin speaker oversea. They will get to know each other through this online Skype call.

2. Standard 3: PRESENTATIONAL: Present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics. - After the call, the student will give an oral presentation in Mandarin, telling the classmates what she/he knows about this new friend just make though the Skype.

3. Standard 6: Oral Communication: CONVENTIONS AND SKILLS: Apply knowledge of verbal and nonverbal language to communicate effectively in various situations: interpersonal, group, and public for a variety of purposes.

Benchmark LA.K.6.2 Use basic social conventions in greetings, in introductions, and in conversations

Benchmark LA.K.6.3 Ask and respond appropriately to basic questions - This lesson apply the Mandarin communication in interpersonal and public levels.

NETS Standard(s) - Technology Standards:

Basic operations and concepts

- Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems.
- Students are proficient in the use of technology.

Social, ethical, and human issues

- For the class requires students to communicate with another ethnic group, the students need to understand the ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology.
- Students practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software, including the computer, the headsets and the system.
- Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.

Technology productivity tools

- Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
- Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative works.

Technology communications tools

- Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.
- Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.

References

ISTE NETS, Technology Foundation Standardsfor All Students, Feb 2008, http://cnets.iste.org/students/s_stands.html

Hawaii Content & Performance Standards III, Content Area: Language Arts for Grade/Course: K, Feb 2008, http://standardstoolkit.k12.hi.us/

Technorati : , HCPS III Standard, NETS Standard, less plan, mandarin, performance objectives, skype

Blog Post # 4

2008-02-15T11:15:00.000-10:00

Website/blog: Music Mandarin
Link: http://mus-mandarin.blogspot.com/
About:
This blog is created by Robin, a experienced mandarin teacher for elementary school, sharing the teaching materials in Madarin. Information on Chinese culture, and resources, including picture books on China are shared.
The potential readers might include mandarin teachers at elementary schools in English speaking countries. As we know, children are good at aquiring a foreign language, and music is an effective way to maintian attention from the children.
In addition, plenty of interesting resources from the "site link" can be found. Acutally, I explored the "site link" for almost half an hour and added most of them into my "favourate folder". It's the great experience of reading someone's blog!

Ed. Journal - A website about Tolerance

2008-02-14T23:19:00.000-10:00

It's acutally the homework in ETEC414.
We were told to find some website about education (in general) and analyze them.
Just like this site in all means. :)

http://www.tolerance.org/

How many of us never have a feeling towards someone or some behavior of “oh, that’s weird”?
None!

The world is the world with diversity but we human is not naturally appreciating this diversity. We have bias towards differences, get worried about the alliances or even worse, hate each other due to the differences. Weirdo = Abnormal by our own ruler
As educators, we feel urged to prepare ourselves and our kids to appreciate this colorful world with diversity.

From the site introduction in Tolerance.org, it is a principal online destination for people interested in dismantling bigotry and creating, in hate's stead, communities that value diversity. Through its online well of resources and ideas, its expanding collection of print materials, its burgeoning outreach efforts, and its downloadable public service announcements, Tolerance.org promotes and supports anti-bias activism in every venue of life.

The site targets on four groups: teacher, parents, teens and kids. As a potential teacher, let’s explore the teacher’s site: (http://www.tolerance.org/teach): it provides educators with educational materials that promote respect for differences and appreciation of diversity in and beyond the classroom. It's interesting to look at the classroom activities to get more ideas about how other expert preparing their curriculums.

Also, the outlook of the website is amazingly mature. Each sub-site can be a integrated site acutually. From the screen shots of each sub-site, we can feel the efforts by the site owner, through the delicated layouts, color themes, structures and contents.

(click the picture to open a window for the sub-sites)
Teachers

Parents

Teens

Kids

Ed. Journal – Interview

2008-02-12T09:24:00.000-10:00

(I changed the interviewee after Feb 5; this entry was re-edited two weeks later.)
1. About my interview: FLG MEM. at HI.
All the content I interviewed was mentioned in review paper. One of the comments Prof gave was "brave. " -- didn’t deserve that compliment.

I just realized that I presented a wrong idea in the paper: I tried to pray for her husband to introduce Jesus to her in the paper, but I was wrong. If he would introduce her to Christ, it probably had happened for ages. It's very common that the close relationship won’t help the faith start/growth.

2. Reading Prof Reed’s note is always interesting. I thought Prof. Reed was a Catholic, but now I can feel the post modernism silhouette, with the belief of the supernatural world.(it comes from student’s natural tendency: spying teacher.) :P

3. Comments another student’s interview:
The last one of interviewing a prostitute is quite bizarre…L
Just watched the video Not For Sale

One of the dialogues in the video can still clearly replayed in my head: “I wish I would die when I wake up next day, for I can’t wait for the Hell. It’s better” (I paraphrase here)
The numbers and facts were too sanguinary. It’s hard to believe we are in a civil liberal world.

My church Nightlife recently is planning the Anti-Human trafficking conference and this should be another helpful channel for the conference.
Join this fight:
http://groups.google.com/group/NL-Social-Justice?hl=en

Peace

2008-02-12T07:50:00.000-10:00

Me: "Sleep tight and may God speaks to you in your dream "

Friend: "Hearing from God? God already put His Word in Bible, reading Bible is hearing from God. "

Me: "But God speaks to people, through the whole Bible. "

Friend: "please test what you learn with what God has already given to us in His Word. Deceit and Truth is what you need to seperate. You can not mix the two. "

Bible doesn't lie, as a Chrsitiand, no one will doubt it. Shoud I test Bible? Yes, I would like to do that, as a lot of Christians archaeologist did, but truth is my experience and my eyes and physical body don't lie.

If Christians are so exclusive towards their own sisters and brothers, how can they share the gospel with non-believers?

Remember someone told me: It's dangerous to be a Christian.

In this post-modern world, everything sounds "dangerous".
=D

Stranger

2008-02-11T17:06:00.000-10:00

Walking from my apartment to work and it's half an hour earlier.

I like to leave home earlier, so that whenever I met some friends on the way, there will be enough time greeting and talking.

When I passing by the Jefferson Hall, there was a guy sitting by the corner, with the hat covering more than half of the lowered face.

He was crouching there, silently, without anyone's attention.

He might be just taking the nap in that shade, or thinking about the paper at class, or even day dreaming.

"Go and say hi to him."

Why? I don't speak to stranger. Some unpleasant memory of male strangers showed in my head.

"Just go".

I passed him, hesitating, and then walked back. I kneeled down, talking to him, though I felt really awkward.

"Hi, are you ok?"

He raised his head, "yes, I am ok. "

I saw the tears and desperation from his eyes. That's not a ok person's face. "You sure? Do you want some Gummy Bear candies? It will make you feel better and everything will be ok."

I get my Gummy Bear candies from my bag, gave him a handful candies.

He looked at me, with appreciation and surprise. I am from Germany.

Shocked…amazed…coincidence? Nope…glad I didn't walk away without paying attention. "Hope you have a great day! God Loves You, brother."

I never shared this with my friend, it is too strange to tell my friend. But I do want more of this kind of miracles happening in future so that I can get used to them and share with friends freely.

Anyways, I had really a great day.

About Blog Comments Post #3

2008-02-08T09:47:00.001-10:00

Why people commenting?
How to comment on people's blog?
What kind of blog/ blog post wins people's comments"?
Here you go...my little thought about this topic:

Here are some blogs I observed:
Wang Jianshuo’s Blog:
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/
I regularly comment on his site, just because his information & insight: http://user.wangjianshuo.com/artemis.htm
Thought those comments were made long time ago; this is the first time I start thinking about the reason of making comments.
Some comments are from his friends, some are from the ransom guest like me.
I was searching Google about the shanghai’s building in Xintiandi area, and one of his blog posts helped me. So I just commented for appreciating the information he offered generously on the blog. The link is http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20060514_how_xintiandi_was_built.htm
Face book – K.M.'s blog:
http://hawaii.facebook.com/notes.php?style=2&id=19504040
I hope you can read even you are not in her friend list.
She is a new Christian and it’s really exciting and encouraging to see her growth in Christ.
Appreciate her gift in writing, and really amazed by reading her articles.
If she publishes a book someday, I probably will ask all of my friends buy ~
I almost comments on all her notes, since we are good buddies.
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1191258123
This blog has 11694000 visiting counts.
It’s by Han Han, the post modern writer. I was a fan of him back to high school.
Just liked his cynic style of writing and shared the same hatred to the power and felt the same sympathy towards the weakness, with his pen, he is like a fighter.
It might be the only blog right now I am reading in Chinese
The comments are most from his fans, readers or even hostiles (his writing did offended many people).

So, what is the purpose of commenting on blog? I generalize these 5 points and there should be a lot of reasons. Only thing we need to remember is: keep a light mood when you read other people's writing. we don't have to agree to anyone, but it's a good way to learn, to explore and to experience this amazing world on web.

Friendship’s extension from the real world.
Like most of my post on Kacie’s blog, it’s an extension of our real world friendship. Sometimes, when people writing, they changed their personality. Kacie is this kind and from reading her blog, you can’t image it’s written by a big smiling little girl!
Appreciate the information the blog offers.
Like the one I commented in Wang Jianshuo’s blog. I did this a lot, for the encouraging comments will motivate writers and helps with the environment of the whole network.
Share some ideas you have
It might be something you don’t agree with the blog post, or something you want to add on the same topic the blog post is issuing on.
Marketing
There are a lot of Ads in blog comments. Sometimes it’s really annoying. I got some in my blog on MSN and normally, I will just delete those unpleasant comments. But not all marketing comments are bad. If you leave your comments on A’s blog, A might visit you back and comment on you as well. Then you will build a network with some strangers, in a nice way.
Venting
There are some people doing that, it might be some psychological reason for health enhancement, but I can’t understand this behavior. It happens more often on Forum.

My comments:

http://user.wangjianshuo.com/artemis.htm

Ed. Journal - Poverty

2008-02-05T19:32:00.000-10:00

E class is as interesting as before. Today’s topic is poverty.
We watched the video of Bangladesh Grameen Foundation, and discussed a series of pictures of a weekly grocery shopping in the world.
Just found these two classroom materials on line:
Video is from
Grameen Foundation Website
Photographs by Peter Menzel from the book "Hungry Planet"
This is the picture of Aboubakar family from Chad. They spent only $1.23 for one week on food and Their favorite food is soup with fresh sheept meat.

Poverty is not news for us and it keeps companionship with human after we left Eden. The Grameen foundation is quite successful and to the point - diminish the poverty.
Yes, as we know, NGO is an excellent way to dissolve the global poverty, and open doors for developing countries.
But the root of the poverty is greed. Yes, this material leve of poverty is from the nature of the man.

Still remember the DVD I watched, Another World is Possible Vol. II – Poverty . Our world is a world of economic extremes. "A beautiful harmony of songs and images, teaching and storytelling unveil the tragic realities of our fragile world and incredible hope that another world is possible." It's a good movie. Would like to watch it again to explore more about this "another possible world".

Yes, it's another economic extreme:
The Diamond-covered Mercedes Benz SL550
http://www.partstrain.com/blog/?p=167

This is supposed to be an abundant world, the world of buffet. But this is also a realistic world, the world of worry, greed and hatred.
I am sure Professor Reed's idea is letting us think about teacher's roll and poor people, for all what we present might be the model for the next generation.
Having a loving heart and practising following Jesus are always the best choice.

Copyright Free

2008-02-01T10:02:00.000-10:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_image_resources

Ed. Journal – Choose a topic in Hunger of Memory

2008-01-29T09:20:00.000-10:00

Ed. Journal – Choose a topic didn’t included in the reflection and reaction paper about “Hunger of Memory” by Rodriguez.
The entry discussed the 1) Relationship between home and school & 2) private v.s. public, relating to my own life and experience.

As we discussed in class, education will undermine the relationship in family while threat members of the family’s authority. For example: Student A’s grandma doesn’t speak English and one day, she was asked to visit school. So now student A plays an interpreter’s role. Teacher should always remember to look at Grandma instead of the interpreter, for the respect and manner. This is the same rule for interviewing with interpreter.

Student Grandma

Teacher

Language is the power code and after Rodriguez grasped the code, he felt ashamed of his family, so as to separate his public life from private life. The tragedy happened because of the malformed society value and the conflict between mainstream and minority. The tragedy is still happening and won’t disappear unless the world is absolutely equal and even. A lot of bilingual immigrants’ children as I know are with the dual memberships – family self and public self. The family self is for the family and parents, while the public self is for the friends, for the school, for the social occasions.

Language 1 <-> concept/thing /shape <-> Language 2

It’s just lucky to be in Hawaii, where all people are minority, all people have accent and all people are proud of their cultures.

Chinese Pod - Post #2

2008-01-28T06:28:00.000-10:00

Hei folks, have a great blog to share!
http://chinesepod.com/

Chinese Pod is a language training service unlike anything I have ever seen before. It works by taking the best of the traditional classroom, and recreating it around the needs and lifestyle of the student, with all the improvements that technology allows.

It provides a community of practice: great teachers, lively discussion with fellow students, and a shared learning experience.

However, Chinese Pod supports learning in ways that a traditional school is unable to do. For example:
Bookmark the lessons you want to study, and have them delivered daily through the personal RSS feed.
Study on the go: can put the lessons on the iPod or mobile phone.
Tag: The user can tag my vocabulary lists, then the related words tagged by others can be found.
Comment: Can feel the real classroom in this integrated Blog.

It also allows users to sign up and create their own blog.
I found Professor Yao’s book with the lessons in MP3 by some Chinese language fans!
Integrated Chinese: http://blogs.chinesepod.com/integrated-chinese/

Right now, I am working on a website for Chinese Language Education Association in Hawaii. Chinese Pod is an on line integrated learning blog, which inspire me about the site I am working on. Blog can be considered as a part of that website, for teachers to share the ideas about teaching. But I might use more videos than audio, since I believe that visual learning is more efficient and attractive in language teaching and learning.

Copyright Address for Kids

2008-01-25T10:57:00.000-10:00

A website about copyright for kids.
Teaching kids about copyright laws
Hope it helps for educators . =)

Ed. Journal - 1st Entry of Ed. Journal

2008-01-24T09:10:00.000-10:00

The education “tag” starts from the multicultural education class I am taking in spring 2008 and will be continuing since the life journal is a journal of educating and being educated.

Why multicultural education matters?
I am staring blankly to this question for a while multicultural in education is beyond dispute in this mixed culture world.

What is culture?
Culture is not limited by the behavior and product of the people or patterns in people’s life; it is the shared beliefs, feelings and values of a community of people.
From Hiebert, Dimensions of culture:

The misunderstandings of multicultural education or communication are based on ignorance of the beliefs, feelings and values of another culture. The solution is to learn how the other culture works. As a teacher, preparing ourselves as a cross-cultural educator so that when the student in our classroom is from the other culture or minority, teacher won’t show the attitude of “making no sense to us”.

Suppose there is a student in class believes in Jehovah's Witness. The teacher should know the basic religion background of Jehovah’s Witness; have some concept of do’s and don’ts for the classroom activities. If possible, ask the assistant from parents for additional support.

At last, the MCE class is not only for preparing the potential teachers to be sensitive for the students from different cultures, but also preparing the curriculum with a global perspective.

Something warning myself

2007-11-02T13:37:00.000-10:00

The other day, we were talking about a bad example of preaching, which reminded me some experience.

I am writing them down now, for the warning to myself in future.

(These preachings are not wrong, it's just not proper for new believers or non-believers )

Bubbling to myself...^_<

Sampele 1:

"Believers can go to heaven while non-believers will go to the Hell!"

It's quite popular in China's preaching and got a lot of this kind of preaching while I was there.

This kind of threatens as a preaching is not helpful as I felt.

Faith is for happiness and joy, not threaten nor warning.

Faith is the path towards best choice in life, not a worry for the future Hell or Heaven.

Faith should beyond any religions , beyond judgement, beyond curse, beyond fear.

No more fear but joy.

Sample 2

"As a Christian, you should do this; you are not supposed to do that; …"

Then rule number 1, rule number 2...

Shhhhhhhh….!

Isn't faith supposed to be freedom and joy? Where are those rules coming from?

There should be no rules in any faith and if the truth is true, the Power from the truth will bring the righteousness, without any written rules.

PLUS, human don't like rules, human desires freedom.

With righteousness and wisdom, freedom is what we get from faith.

No more rules but righteousness.

Sample 3

Knocking doors everyday…asking "are you interested in XXX? "

Annoying? Yes. Feel Rebellious? Yes.

Psychologically, there should be an exact number of inviting someone to join a group.

I say 2-3 times, but it should be various depending on people and relationship.

I had this annoying experience from one religion group long time ago and at that time I was just confused and uncomfortable, as a stranger and non-believer.

As a warning to myself, I should not be too hospitality, no matter how strongly I am desired to share the joy of faith with friends.

Calm down and pray are always another super natural way to knock the door.

No more over-annoying but praying.

message from dad

2007-10-21T00:14:00.000-10:00

My father left a message in my blog on QQ (QQ the same like MSN/Live and popular in China).

He said he miss me and hope I know how to protect myself without him. It seems in his eyes I am will never grow up.

Tears....we never talked to each other so often, but we both understand the father-daughter relationship is full with love and understanding.

He is the guy would like to spend more time in career than family, and would like to be silent instead of saying something romantic or meaningless.

Traditional Chinese father and daughter is this way…But I know he loves me, though he never said so.

What a lovely dad, what a meaningful message, what a great distance for this father-daughter relationship to grow...

Everytime feeling teary, the song 叶子 by 阿桑 will be the only song played in my media player.

It probably will bring more tears, but why not?

叶子

阿桑

叶子　是不会飞翔的翅膀

翅膀　是落在天上的叶子

天堂　原来应该不是妄想

只是我早已经遗忘

当初怎么开始飞翔

＊孤单　是一个人的狂欢

狂欢　是一群人的孤单

爱情　原来的开始是陪伴

但我也渐渐地遗忘

当时是怎样有人陪伴

＃我一个人吃饭旅行　到处走走停停

也一个人看书写信　自己对话谈心

只是心又飘到了哪里

就连自己看也看不清

我想我不仅仅是失去你

重唱　＃,＊,＃,＃

叶子　是不会飞翔的翅膀

翅膀　是落在天上的叶子

Looking forward to the Holy Sunday…:)

Rain for a reason

2007-10-20T15:51:00.000-10:00

It was at noon, on Manoa campus, I was walking from class to library as usual.

Rain just polled down from no where, and all of the sudden.

My habit of bringing an unmbrella seems useful now, though it hasn't been using for a while.

There was a lady walking the same direction as I did.

"Go and share the umbrella with her!" Yes, why not?

So I step up, and put my umbrella on her head and shoulder, with the sweetest smile to show my friendly intention.

Thanks, she said.

My pleasure! Where are you heading for?

Library. And you? Thank you for the umbrella.

Oh, me too! I did nothing.

Nothing great happening, nor did I share any gospel with her.

But it's a joyful story, in this "who cares?" world, for Jesus does cares.

Holy Spirit Retreat

2007-10-18T22:04:00.000-10:00

Everything starts from the retreat. Being in presence of God and sinking myself in the light of Heaven are such a cheerful experience to do as a baby Christian.

I used to wondering why God hides from human, but now, while He is disclosing His smiling face to me, I understand that it's not Him hiding from us, it's us running away from Him!

It starts from Holy Spirit Retreat, starts from being baptized by Holy Spirit, starts from the truth revealing.

Love, Peace…and Power.

Fun in Chinese series finally finished

2007-10-12T16:50:00.000-10:00

Hope the publisher will approve the book soon.
We were told it would take forever to review and marketing.
Should have suggetsted Hazel to publish at lulu.com.
Didn't do that for the name of the company sounds like my own company, or my relatives'.

It's always fun to work, learn, have fun and get paid. Too bad I finish the work fast than we thought. =(
share one of the cover pages here: (it is not the final cover. Changed lots for the resource picture copyright. Try to make everything original.)

.....

everything is Good for health

2007-09-03T13:26:00.000-10:00

From C:

"Everything is good for health."

True.

Since we are with a positive attitude, nothing is bad for health.

From S:

凡事感激，

感激傷害你的人，因為他磨練了你的心志

感激欺騙你的人，因為他增進了你的智慧

感激中傷你的人，因為他砥礪了你的人格

感激鞭打你的人，因為他激發了你的鬥志

感激遺棄你的人，因為他教導了你該獨立

感激絆倒你的人，因為他強化了你的雙腿

感激斥責你的人，因為他提醒了你的缺點

Bingo!

It is not easy to practise in real life and our mouth & action are always faster than mind.

Appreciation is a life long lesson, for a healthy life. =)

From R:

You got a teacher, whose name is Jesus Christ.

You got a most powerful assistant, who is called Holy Spirit.

Yes, I learned that, just now, I felt I am attatched to it.

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Friends and parents, faith and love...Good Lord.

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Don't complain.

A freind told me that I need to complain.

I was also told that I was always positive behaving and that's not a normal person supposed to be.

Do I need that?

Complaint is not a great thing, as far as I can understand.

Gossip is even worse.

I didn't mind people's complaining to me, for the imperfection of human being.

Also sometimes, people's complaint helps with my behave, for all what they were complaining about were all marked as the things I could not do.

In othe word, being a good listener is a way of learning the perfection.

Friend's suggesiton is good for health and

Obviously, with an appreciative heart, with a "everything is good for health" attitude, we don't need to complain.

Compaint is not the solution. but HS is.

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