Weekly Knowledge Gains

1. But how, pray tell, do you "notice" something that happens when you're asleep?

pray tell = please do tell

2. 非主流 = alternative culture, non-mainstream culture, 90后 = after-90s'

3. Cybersquatting is the practice of registering an internet domain name that is likely to be wanted by another person or organization in the hope that it can be sold to them for a profit

4. 单败赛制 = single-elimination tournament，双败赛制 = double-elimination tournament

5. cut loose

• if a person or organization cuts loose, they separate themselves from another person or organization (usually + from ). She cut loose from her sponsors and decided to try to fund herself instead.

• to behave in a way that is free and relaxed, especially when you are enjoying yourself. After a few glasses of wine everyone just cut loose and started dancing.

6. Boxer Rebellion = 义和团运动

朽木不可雕

I was labelled 朽木, though it was not the first time I was called so. Among a pile of emotions arisen at the time of the word hitting my eardrum, sadness somehow dominated. I couldn't pretend I was fine. And I'm sure no one can. The hard fact was that such a labelling did have a huge impact on my ideology, and I will never do it to my kid(s). At one point, I was saddened and I felt completely helpless. It's piercing. It's devastating.

I'm not psychologically weak in general, at least I don't accept that if you regard me as a weakling in mind.

Also, I'm not a paranoid and do not like to shield myself from criticism. I love criticism and would accept gladly. To me, imperfection rules, because I know I'm not a saint.

I learn from this a new way of treating people - never fire words on impulse as words are sometimes your ammunition to kill people.

My Life

It's kinda ridiculous to write a topic like this, as the "my life" topic is internationally known to be written for the most part by those who have achieved something big in their lives. Though I have magically achieved a "big belly" in recent years, that's never something I'm proud of.

Now at the age of 27, I feel an urgent need to pick up again those treasurable memories from the one-third of my passing life.

I have virtually no memory of my babyhood and my life in kindergarten. Don't ask me why, they are just completely out of my mind.

As a pupil, I was very naughty with average grades in my class. I met my best friend during pupil days and my dad used to escort me back home everyday after school. These are really good old days, except I got punished every now and then by different teachers for various bad acts!

When I grew up later as a student in junior high, I started to become an underachiever. T_T Not because I was not studying hard, but the environment as a whole did not permit the slightest existence of good students. Fighting abounded in my class, and teachers were scared to enter the classroom, not to mention students. I got the worst of it by studying among the biggest band of gangsters!

After graduating from my junior high, I started to reorient myself out of the amiss rails. I remember the days when I worked extremely hard in university library. I lived on English vocabulary indeed. And that's when I met the best intensive reading teacher on earth, who showed me a way to conquer English.

The next few years were kinda dull as I worked for UE, where I met a spiritual leader Eric and a consolidated team, dubbed as ET team.

Then my world transformed somewhat, thanks to the careful nurture of my darling Zoe, who has a dream of turning me from a wordmonger to a wordsmith, someday, somehow, in the coming future.

Late Night Grunt

I want to ensure her a simple but cozy life. That's all. I may not be able to offer you extravagance, but I try very hard to lessen your worry about shelter and food. I may not be mature enough at the time of writing this post, but I push myself to maturate on a daily basis. I'm very weak at math, logic and orientation at present, but I attempt to make up those by diligence.

All in all, I just want to be a good man who can take good care of his soul mate in my limited life. I know it's easily said than done. But I will tough it out.

I hate brawl and misunderstanding and kinda quick-tempered at times. But I'm nice in nature.

Words are nothing in this material world.

But I still want to say,

I will try my best to make our world beautiful.

Weekly Knowledge Gains

Racial profiling is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act or to behave in a "predictable" manner.

Couched their protests in diplomatic language.

couch = fo word in a certain manner; phrase:

Blogs for example, particularly the ones that deal with non-technological and non-scientific subjects, tend to be inaccurate, uninformed and parochial.

parochial = provincial; limited in perspective

For these reasons blogging represents retrogression in the standards of public discourse.

retrogression = the act or process of deteriorating or declining.

Ninety-two percent of the respondents to a Sina.com survey thought that the measure was daft.

daft = foolish; stupid.

Why should their human rights be so inconsequential and worthy of neglect?

inconsequential = lacking importance.

If we allow terrorists to disrupt our lives to that extent we're just playing into their hands.

play into one's hands = to do something that gives someone else an advantage over you, although this was not your intention.

On one hand, they wanted the Uygur mobsters to be "braver" and make "bigger" noises. On the other, they are again feigning innocence to swindle sympathy out of the uninformed overseas public.

feign = to give a false appearance of; to represent falsely; pretend to.

Google Chrome OS vs Windows 7

Google is obviously not resting on its search engine laurels. Months ago when it launched its browser product Chrome, we knew that was just the beginning of Google's boundless ambitions. And here it comes, news from Google says that it is going to work out a new operation system called Google Chrome OS for desktop computers before 2010. It is said that the new OS will be developed with only the basic functions, so you will not see any fancy things out of this newbie. Those who love whimsical stuff will be truly sad this time when all the tawdry will be gone. To computer users, the new OS is just 1-2 years away and means a new blood will soon be injected into this perennially monopolized market, but to Microsoft, it indicates a new and fierce battle for OS market share will soon be launched, by another formidable IT giant Google.

Let's sit back and see who is going to have the last laugh.

Ethinic Conflict in China

I don't know the authenticity of this picture. I hope it is a fake. Quoting from one of the western media "Thousands of Chinese, many wielding sticks, clubs and knives, marched today through Uighur neighborhoods of the northwestern city of Urumqi chanting "blood for blood'' and singing the Chinese national anthem."

I was stunned hard by the news of ethnic clashes in China. Hope all the ethnic and religious battles would come to a complete halt and never be repeated in the scope of world.

My Community is On Fire

Last night when everything seemed running as ordinarily as you could imagine, something terrible broke out with a start. At around 20:00, a cloud of black smoke billowed out from nowhere, and soon nasty odor was pervaded in the air. I scurried out to balcony to see what was going on but saw nothing except a hazy curtain of night.

In the distance, shouts were heard. Though I couldn't get the words clearly, I smelled a rat. It didn't take me too long to realize that there was a fire in our community. Very shortly, fire engine and ambulance were there.

The whole experience was new as me and mom hurried to pack our stuff in case an evacuation was needed.

However, it turned out that the fire was not serious enough to call for an evacuation alarm and the firefighters put out the flame in split-second.

The smog dispersed minutes later and we went back to our ordinary life. Another minutes later, the whole thing was erased from my mind as I sat down in front of my desk reading literature written in ancient Chinese. For what? Because to me the ancient Chinese literature was more horrible than fire!

What's S13?

Thanks to the strictest digital censorship on earth, netizens in China are always on a feverish move to find ways to spoof Chinese censors. S13 is just one of the latest examples showing the intelligence of Chinese Internet users. It is a nice twist to SB, initials of a Chinese phrase that means idiot, designed to avoid online censorship. This is how a new word has been coined by collective intelligence. And no doubt, we will see more of these as collective intelligence is always in action among the online bunch.

The 1st Anniversary

It was our 1st anniversary but since I didn't have a cozy access to internet yesterday so no blog entry was registered. The day went on pretty like any ordinary day - no special arrangement, no festival extravagance. But it was not perfect. The only stain was that we were deceived into a crappy restaurant by an open-air ad and was forced to enjoy a trashy meal. Besides that, we had quite a good night. Filling with happiness and bliss, we spent a couple of romantic hours to review what we had achieved in the past year. From complete strangeness to visible intimateness, we've walked a bitter-and-sweet path for a full year.

Though it's not obvious, we are now down the road leading to the 2nd anniversary, a road strewn thick with felicity and prosperity.