Loudwater

Since Windows and Microsoft is no longer my thing, I will blog at a new place:

http://sduan.blogspot.com/

Please link or RSS it, share your thought on it, and keep connecting with me. Thanks!


我的新Blog地址：http://sduan.blogspot.com/

!!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 !!!!

I picked up the book right after watching the movie because I knew it was going to be my book. Upon finishing reading it today, I’m sure I will read it again. Jon Krakauer did an excellent job recounting Christopher McCandless’s adventure before and into the Last Frontier. With his own experience, sort of similar family conflict background and detailed research, Krakauer does not only descriptively reveal the last few years of McCandless’s life, but includes multiple perspectives to help readers understand the philosophy behind the story. It was a young man’s will to get away from the noisy civilization and adventure into the “simple” wildness in Alaska -- nothing is wrong with that. He was scorned by a lot of Alaskans and other adventurers of being an idiot to underestimate the crucifying wildness of nature; however, to a certain (maybe “his”) standard, he was prepared and did a fairly good job handling the difficult hunting games -- he succeeded for more than 100 days while most of those criticizers might not be able to survive with what he had for a short few weeks -- it’s only the lesson that nature is forever beyond our human’s that ended his life. Maybe not until the last few days of his life did McCandless realize “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED,” but he was obviously enjoying with what he was doing. It was certainly a tragedy for the family, but children could not be blamed for most of their deeds. You can blame McCandless to be selfish, arrogant and idealistic; but the idea of “Alexander Supertramp” could truly inspire us to step back and ponder the way we are living our life. Being a reader of Henry D. Thoreau, I admire his courage and heart to do this in this modern time. You can also blame Chris’s parents of not creating friendly environment for their children’s grow-up, but sometimes we may need to be a bit more mature to understand parents’ difficulties.

I loved the movie Sean Penn directed of this story before reading the book. Although I still agree it is one of the only few motion pictures that stay close enough to the original book/story, I’d say it does only reflected one part of the fascinating experience. I think Mr. Penn emphasized too much on McCandless’s family conflict that I even felt it was advocating youth rebellion. It was also weak telling the reader that McCandless was NOT enough-prepared to survive the unpredictable nature, from which people like me worshiping Thoreau might blindly boast about. All being said, Into The Wild is something worth watching and reading again.

I've been using my new MacBook (2.2GHz White) for about a week now. I had high expectation from it, and it didn't disappoint me at all. Except for some early migration (from Windows) difficulties, I am very happy to say "Hello, I'm a Mac!" The design of this thing is elegant, I am really treating it as a luxury baby toy. The integrated system is more superior to me than that huge junk of PC. A simple copy-and-paste will install software. Type in whatever you are looking for, the system will locate it for you. You don't need to scratch your head trying to remember where you saved a file because it is where it was supposed to be and there are only certain folders that grouped them together where you need to search from. I only touched very few of the applications, but they are already helping me hugely in organizing daily life: the iCal, Address Book, Widgets, Front Row, Photo Booth etc. They are all so cool. I'm sure those ones I haven't touched can do more.

It's just that the more I love my Mac, the more I hate Windows/Microsoft. As we all know, transferring to a Mac users faces the most challenging problem of sharing. But the real problem is not people do not want to share, it's Microsoft does not want to share. Most applications are all available to multi-platform systems, only those Microsoft products (excluding those specific software for particular purposes) are non-sharable. Windows Live Hotmail does not work with Safari, and is not available for a lot of account including mine on Mail even after installing the Httpmail plug-in (thanks to one of the genius who saved tons of people's lives but not mine). I've no idea what a junk it is that every time I log onto that new Windows Live Mail website, it eats up all my RAM, the only thing I can hear is the fans of my computer starts screaming crazily. That's why I don't even bother trying the so-called new version. "Classic" is much better, Win2000>XP>Vista is another example of Microsoft's new products. What a joke after jokes! It really gives me trouble now because I use Hotmail account as one of my primary email accounts, now I'm almost too lazy to check it. Maybe I should really change my primary email account... ugh... will it worth the hassle?? Also, the MS Office for Mac trail version pops up the window asking you whether you want to purchase the full copy of the software every time you open/close/change something, and it does not even allow you to print. On the other hand, the similar iWork 30 days free trail allows you to execute all the features. I guess this comparison tells everything.

I'm not saying Mac doesn't have its disadvantages. It's only that the stupid Windows makes me bash against it. In this 21st century high-tech age, when people are trying to create all sorts of 3rd party sharewares, why does Microsoft think they are the only one... Hopefully, reality will wake up them someday soon.

This is the view from my window this year:

A little different from the last couple of years:

 

Obviously, I liked the old one better. But oh well... my friends ask me not to be too greedy. haha

It was valuable 8 months working at RIM. Although it was not an ideal job for my personal interest, it was precious to be able to learn a lot on the subject related to my studying. I appreciate all the coaching and advising from everyone. Their help will benefit my entire career.

Now I'm back to school for almost 2 months. It was such different feeling coming back from a small town of working to the usually busy campus of studying. I actually needed a couple of days to get used to the change: rez life, noisy campus, and of course: reunion with all the peeps here in VanCity. School is very busy and stressful. I suddenly feel working is so relax. You can completely relax after work most of the time, even if you work overtime to 7 or 8 at night. In school, you need to work basically all the time, homework will keep you busy after the classes, and all the other stuff keep your stress level red high all the time. You rarely have a break. What's more, I'm not sure why but for some reason, I sort of lose the motivation to study in school style after coming back. When you don't know something at work, you go to look for references and search for answers, then you come back and use what you learned right away. I like that feeling of accomplishment and see the learned stuff be useful instantly. In school, you learn a lot of things, but you have no idea where exactly to use them, maybe you are not even sure if you'll ever use some of them. Oh well... this is definitely NOT a good sign. I need to get my motivation back and start the hard work ASAP.

Alright, now you know what I've been up to. I'll try to keep here updated. As always, I'd like to hear all your adventures!

Gosh! Can't believe I haven't updated here for more than 2 months. For those of you who still care about what's going on with me, I apologize for the possible disappointment every time you visited here but got nothing, again... Hopefully, I can keep all of you entertained as often as possible. =)

I uploaded the photos from my Niagara Falls trip in early August. I wish I could've done this soon after the trip but the Windows Live Space has a limit on how many photos you can upload every month. It was a great trip with some of my co-op friends. Niagara was like a mini-Vegas. I went to both of the casinos and had a wild night. About the falls, maybe because I had heard too many stories about it, the first feeling when I saw it was like: "That's It?!" But still, the power of the water falls was magnificent. It's pretty cool when we went there 3 o'clock in the morning (don't ask me how that happened...) and listened to the powerful sound when nobody was around (comparing to the huge tourists crowd during the day time.) I also uploaded the photos from the Rogers Cup tennis match I went to in Toronto. As some of you already heard, I went there mainly because Anna Kournikova! haha Don't be too jealous, Ger. I didn't see Hingis. haha It was the special opening night of the one-week long tournament - one of the warm-up ones for the US Open every year. Following a first round match - a thriller 3-setter - between Safina and Pin, the special Tennis Legend game took the stage. John McEnroe and Jim Courier played a competitive match. Then the moment of Anna K, which already kept us waiting for too long, stole the stage. She still can play very good doubles. But more importantly, she still got the attention every where she goes. Her smile was still cute. Her body's still perfect.

My time in Ontario ended with a Blue Jay's baseball game. That pretty much summed up what I had been trying to do during the free time in the east: all those sports events I was not able to get in on the west coast. I was in Montreal for the Grand Prix, enjoying and enduring the beautiful sound of F1 engines. The night at Yankee stadium in NYC was a 23-year dream came true. I had a walk with Tiger Woods after Independence Day. I am really happy looking back on those occasions.

I finally uploaded all the photos from NYC & Philadelphia & Washington DC trip, used all the space MSN gives me for August. So you won't see my party fun in the last month here until September.  

It's been a month since the trip. After coming back from that CRAZY New York City, I've been thinking about a question for a bit: "What is New York City?" Unfortunately, I was never able to give myself an answer. The only feeling I had from NYC is simply one word, which I used again and again when friends asked me "how was NYC" -- it is "CRAZY". I can tell you one thing that I will probably never be able to survive a life in New York City -- it's just too crazy to me. Too busy, too many people, too noisy. Maybe I'm too laid-back. But quoting from a friend: "laid back is right... way to be."

Quoting again from the same friend: "everyone who wants to be someone is in nyc". So true!

NYC is a blend. I bet everyone's heard so much about the neon lights and the skyscrapers. However, the first thing you see is most likely not anything of those. For me, it was the old shabby New Jersey transit train, and then the poor black bummers in the subway. They may bring you right back to reality, even before you hit the wildest imaginations up at Times Square. It is a combination of those white collars walking like bullets (maybe they are always hurrying to somewhere) and casual tourists taking pictures of everything. It is a combination of that shiny beacon of freedom and that grievous hole which will never be recovered in New Yorkers' hearts. It is a combination of forests of high-rises and that precious green Central Park. It is a combination of the flashing neon lights at Times Squares and the back alleys not far away around the Queens. It is a combination of theatres and museums -- I would never be tired of Broadway shows (Mama Mia was AWESOME!), I should have gone to a show at Lincoln Center, and I need way more than the 3 hours I had at the Met. It is a combination of history and modernization. It is a combination of 5th Avenue and people's dreams. It is full of opportunities. It never lacks of controversies. It is...

It is New York City.