Jia Lin’s Weblog

mind reader
This is a kind of spooky gift I received in the Chinese New Year eve from Zhang hong. Figure it out yourself and don’t be as scared as I was.

Path to happiness

Last night, I asked my COM101 students to design models of happy life for man and woman separately. They present quite similar models, but with pretty creative graphs. Here are the elements of happy life proposed by all the models:

For woman to lead happy life, they need to own: wealth, health, high education and family
For man, happy life means: friends, sports, sex and family

It was completely opposite to my expectation, and I could not help but comment: look who should be the elite of the society! Has the social role of male and female changed already? We assumed that men��s self-achievement reside on successful career and responsibility for family, but actually the pursuit of pure material fun is the main path to happiness; maybe my students are still too young to think about serious stuff. But talking about the happy factors for women, I could not see any feminine characteristics from what the students presented (I’m glad there only one group thought beautiful physical features can bring women happy). How could we explain this? To look at it in a pathetic way, maybe the things that make you happy are those that you can never get enough.

Socrates once said: to know yourself is the only path to happiness (something like that). There should be unique formula of happiness for every individual. I would rather believe my students are talking just a general model of happiness and not really believe in what they created.

Two princesses and two men

The guest in tonight’s Larry King show is James Hewitt, the former lover of Princess Diana.I felt so shameful for him when he tries to defend for his innocence, under the questioning of Larry King and call-in audience. He used to wirte a disgraceful book about their affair, he is considering second book (about his own life, according to him), and he plans to sell Lady Di’s passionate love letters. I’m really amazed at how he could have this corage to show up in front of millions talking about the woman he betrayed again and again. CNN must pay him pretty well.

Two hours later, I switched to AMC channel, where “Roman Holiday” is at its finale ( Though I’ve watched this movie at least 25 time in past 25 years, I could still watched it again and again). After spending one fine day and fell in love with the Audrey Hepburn, the princess in the movie, Gregory Peck-the American reporter refused to sell the story and pictures to press though it can save himself from bankruptcy. This nobel deed touched me especially tonight, after I had been fed up with the chicanery of Mr. Hewitt.

Can this nobel deed only happen in movie instead of in real life? Or the difference just resulted from the degenerating of ethics with time being? Or, just blame it to the booming of the mass media, which makes tabloid a huge profitable industry and entice higher desire to quick money and quick fame.

Cecily the blogger

When I was in college, I took a role in an English drama called ��The importance of being Earnest��. We only presented the last few acts of the whole comedy, in which I was the ravishing but overbearing Gwendolen. That was really fun, but nothing is as funny, cynical and sophisticated as the Wilde��s original play write, which I finally read when I came to the US.

One of the details that most impressed me comes from the other pretty girl in the show, whose name is Cecily. She had a thing about writng; like she wrote letters everyday to an imaginary man called Earnest, and eangaged and then broke off with this Earnest in her mind. She kept dairy and recorded things anywhere anytime, even while her admirer (Algernon) expressed his affection to her. Here is how the wonderful conversation goes:

Algernon: I hope, Cecily, I shall not offend you if I state quite frankly and openly that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection.
Cecily: I think your frankness does you great credit, Ernest. If you will allow me, I will copy your remarks into my diary. [Goes over to table and begins writing in diary.]
Algernon: Do you really keep a diary? I��d give anything to look at it. May I?
Cecily: Oh no. [Puts her hand over it.] You see, it is simply a very young girl��s record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication. When it appears in volume form I hope you will order a copy. But pray, Ernest, don��t stop. I delight in taking down from dictation. I have reached ��absolute perfection��. You can go on. I am quite ready for more.
Algernon: [Somewhat taken aback.] Ahem! Ahem!
Cecily: Oh, don��t cough, Ernest. When one is dictating one should speak fluently and not cough. Besides, I don��t know how to spell a cough. [Writes as Algernon speaks.]
Algernon: [Speaking very rapidly.] Cecily, ever since I first looked upon your wonderful and incomparable beauty, I have dared to love you wildly, passionately, devotedly, hopelessly.
Cecily: I don��t think that you should tell me that you love me wildly, passionately, devotedly, hopelessly. Hopelessly doesn��t seem to make much sense, does it?
Algernon: Cecily!

I could not think of any more nasty way to caricature a pretty and dreamy girl. You can hardly point out what��s really going wrong with her, but you could not but laught when you read here.

Few days ago, I read a story about Glen Reynolds, kind of the godfather of blogger, who posted like 30 times at instapundit.com each day. He has warned many people thinking about starting a blog that it can quickly become an addiction. He seems to know it from his own experience. Here is his confession:

“Today, I was in the gym, on the treadmill, watching CNN,” he said. “And as I was watching it, I was composing a blog entry in my head. Then I thought, ‘This really isn’t normal.’ “

And you can guess who burst into my mind when I read this. Yes, Cecily! How could that be so odd for the girl to addict to diary, while blog, the online diary makes so much sense to so many people today? The basic motivation for these two things really have no big difference: recording your secret (or not) thoughts and then get published in future. Cecily just speaks the whole truth, and Wilde just unveiled relentlessly the vanity of human beings- while reflecting of our own thoughts by writing them out, we always keep in mind the readership of potential audience. Weblogs satisfy both of the illusions for everyone: self-reflecting, while attention or recognition from outside readers.

Maybe somewhere from above, Oscar Wilde is tittering somehow, and deliberating the most sinister and naughty plot for bloggers.

Biology of sexes

I happened to switch my TV to Discovery channel on Saturday afternoon, when a documentary titled “Science of sexes” was on its half way, but still caught my attention immediately. The show tries to explain the social-psychological difference of sexes in terms of biological nature. Overall, female is a more superior sex than male: they live longer and healthier life because they have one more pair of chromosome somewhere (I might get it wrong); women can perform multiple tasks simultaneously because the two hemispheres of their brains have better connection than men��s do, which also explained that men��s inability for emotional expression. I said sorry to Bin on the spot since I realized the things I complained the most about him is really not his fault. Blame it to chromosome.

After a lot of other comparison, the conclusion reached by the show is quite creepy: male is expendable sex, in biological sense. Once they finish their mission of impregnation, there is no need for their existence, since mothers or grandmothers can completely fulfill the task of breeding the offspring. That��s why men can be sent to the war or dangerous adventure.

Then I got this wicked thought: While women complain today that men have problem committing to monogamy, why not think it in purely biological way��maybe men are born to be disposed by different women as much as possible, so that their biological existence can be put into a full play.

I guess no one knows it better than Kim Cattrall. She is not only practice this ��men are disposable�� principle as Samantha in Sex and City, she finished her effusive acceptance speech at last night��s Golden globe ceremony as: ��Men come and go, women stay for ever��, in exclamation mark, indeed.

Mom

My Mom celebrated her 55th birthday yesterday. We sang her “happy birthday” over MSN instant messenger; from the tiny video screen we can see her tearing and smiling face.

My mom will officially retire from her teaching job after this week, so this birthday is a kind of landmark to her. She is a little sentimental about this sudden shift of life pace: ��How could time fly so fast, I��m a retired woman now…��. And thetragedy is that her heart and mind left behind on her 18th birthday and never grows older. I guess there is something to do with the age range of the people she teaches dancing with: she have been dancing everyday for 30 years or so with people 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and now 40 years younger than her.

What is her plan for the new life? ��I��m going to Senior��s College to learn English and computer skills.” My mom said proudly.

That is my good girl, dear mom. Happy birthday and enjoy your new life.

Block blogs
China blocks blogspot.com? Hard to believe. It might be a good case for Alex’s Social Surveiliance class.
Blocking blogs?! They really have some foresight. Though most of Chinese Internet user even have no idea what blog is, it is potentially indeed a popular forum for liberalization
No wonder I have’nt got any comment from friends in China for quite a while. And my readership is dropping…

Living in Beijing is more expensive than in Amsterdam and Berlin!

some potential funding sources

Post it on Ring

First two days and all

This semester, all my major school work is tucked into Monday and Tuesday, and nothing major for the rest of the week. Although the course work and teaching is still quite heavy for me, I can have 5 days on my own control– I feel good about it.

I take Grant writing in Learning and Instruction Depatment on Monday afternoon. I used to think it as a kind of workshop stuff, easy and fun. But yesterday I realized it is a heck lot of workload! A lot of hands-on research to do, seven assignment including a final proposal due on April 7, and which should be sent out for grant application for real. I thought about quitting it, but on the second thought, it might push me to work out part of my dissertation proposal by April. Who knows, that will be perfect. The professor has her way for ice-breaking. Though I don’t like all those kinds of get-friendly stunts, I do appreciate that she provides plenty of food, especially during Monday afternoon from 4 to 7–since my evening teaching is, officially, only 10 minutes away from the ending of her class.

And about the teaching, I feel good for the first night. After the nightmarish experience of teaching only 43 students in the huge lecture hall (for 480 students) last semester, I felt much more confident and comfortable when facing the same amount of students, but in a cute small room only 1/10 size of the last one. And since I’d trained myself pulling attention from those sporadically sitting around the empty room, I found that I can easily make everyone (at least most of them) listening now. I wish that’s not only because I tried to dresse like professor last night. Though it is the frist time I teach 101, I believe I can handle it in a pleasant way, after teaching three different courses in a row for the past one year, and all of which are more challenging than 101.

I often do things in reverse order, like teaching the easiest one after teaching three difficult one (isn’t COM101 supposed to be the first course for TAs?). And like taking course on basic regression after taking linear model and multivariate stats.. But the beauty is, now I can enjoy the beauty of regression, and the beauty of Dr. Matti’s lecture. Julia and I were scared off by his profoundity at his probability course in our first semester ever, and did not dare to enroll in his Intermediate stats. in the following semester. Instead, we turned to other practical stats. courses. Now equipped with some hands-on experience and familiarity with stats. terms, I’m coming back, alone (Julia is away in beautiful Amsterdam), to pursue the fundamental of linear regresion. Everyone (now and then) curses the toughness of his class, while loves him for the substantial knowledge he conveys, as well as the natural and passionate flow of his lecture. No one beats him. I’m glad he still remeber me after two years of absence. Two exams and four projects for this course, a lot, but I’m kind of expecting them, to test how well I’ve learnt these two years.

The only downside of the course is its meeting time: 9 a’clock in on Tuesday morning. what a torture for me! and no surprice, I was the last one arriving in for first class, ten minutes late!

The best thing is, at the noon of Tuesday, I feel my weekend is coming! I rewarded myself today by watching Amelie in Bin’s office. What a sweet, charnming, little French movie. I surely should get more of European movies in the future.

And the other best thing (how could there be two best things in a day!) I can watch my favorite TV show, 24, 9 o’clock every Tuesday evening, without worry about any imminent-due assignment!

What a wonderful a day makes, 24 little hours�� I��m almost as happy as Amelie, when she��s riding on the backseat of the scooter, driving through those little streets in Paris, in the lovely early summer day, holding fast to the boy she loves�� I haven��t been touched by this kind of little bourgeois romantics for a long time. I miss Paris so much!