转载自某城，作者笑观沧海

 

 

从来都没有想过要深沉，可偏偏喜欢冬天的大海。每次面对冬天的大海都会有一些莫名的感动和无法逃避的自己对自己的沉思。

喜欢高高站在海边的崖石上，接受着凛冽的寒风，冷，但是清醒。脚下没有想象中雷鸣一般的惊涛拍岸，只有千秋万载不变的海浪对岩石的冲击和雕琢。

伴随着耳边呼呼的海风，听见从脚下礁石罅隙中传出沉闷的海水涌动的声音，就好像一曲深沉的音乐，里面夹带着有规律的沉重的鼓点，敲打并震撼着人的心灵。这种共鸣让人振奋却不浮躁，沉淀但不沉沦。

冬天的大海中没有夏天那种欢快的波涛起伏，也没有戏水的孩子和他们的喧闹，有的只是深蓝色的海面，和海风吹拂下的一层层坚定的海浪。冬天的海有着自己特殊的沉静。放眼望去，在那最远的地方，大海仿佛和天空连接在了一起，深蓝的海水和深蓝的天空，让你突然间会分不出看到的是海水还是天空。

其实在现实中，人最看不清楚和最迷惑的就是眼前的事情。一片小小的树叶如果遮在你的眼前，它会挡住海在你眼里的宏大。在这片树叶的障眼法下，很多人迷失了，人间丑态百种，表露无遗。即便是最后得到了什么，那也是蝇头小利，让他人所不齿。

进退之中，得失之间，往往难以把握。其实在漩涡之中挣扎徘徊烦恼不已的时候，缺乏的就是让自己跳出来去冷眼旁观。为了更长远的目标，人要做的不是去争斗，而是要学会放弃，让那些只有市井才会津津乐道的小事都随风去吧。

我们在谈论对一些人的看法时，也往往会犯同一个错误，就是去指责他人的人性问题。因为事有千种，但千篇一律的都会落在人性本私这个结论上，没有人能脱离得了，所以有时候我们才会不满和愤怒。

人性的表现却有千种万种，有什么样的人生格局就有什么样的人性表现。如果不想自降身份和市侩们混在一起，那就不妨做做“无为”，也学学 “韩信”，只要自己看得起自己，知道自己将来要去哪儿，别人的流言蜚语都可以一笑了之。

人一生的成就，最主要的是取决于心态。有什么样的人生格局，就有什么样的机会。人虽然渺小，却并不是微不足道。站在海边，举目远眺，海天一色，也许只有在这个时候，人才不会被打扰，思考着什么是天地广博，宇宙浩瀚。
 

在家里做着工作上的事，窗外不知道什么时候下起雨来。立秋已过，算是秋雨了。淅淅沥沥的，伴着雷声。

 

记得几个月前的一个雨天，我在桌前慢慢地包馄饨，LG在电脑前准备他的论文，细雨如丝......

 

记得一年多以前的一个雨天，LG的爸爸妈妈还在这里，大家站在窗前看这雨景，雷声轰隆，大雨倾盆，砸在草地上形成无数的小水坑。

 

记得好久好久以前的一个雨天，我还是中学生，从来不带雨伞，最喜欢在雨中奔跑......

 

记得一个小时候看到过的故事，一个人在朋友家住着不想走，时间长了朋友有点不乐意了，正好连日下雨，朋友便在墙上题诗道

 

下雨天留客（，）天留我不留

 

古诗是不加标点的，上面的逗号当然也就没有，只是朋友写诗的时候心里想的是这样的断句法

 

客人看到了墙上的题诗，立刻明白了主人的意思，不过他却微微一笑，在诗句间加了几个断号

 

Today I gave a pratice talk for my prelim. The talk was scheduled to start from 3PM. I checked out a laptop from Wendt Library at about 2:10PM. What a heavy laptop! With this laptop it took me 10 mins from the library to the Engineering Research Building. Normally it only takes about 5 mins. I reserved a conference room in this building last week. I went to the front desk in the median floor to pick up the key to it, entered the room at about 2:25PM, and started to set the laptop up. I didn't expect any difficulty, because I have done this for several times and everything went through well. So I connected the VCR/Audio cable to the right port on the laptop, connected the power cord to the laptop and plug it in the outlet on the wall, turned on the computer, and then turned on the power of the projector by pushing down a button on the wall. Then I heard the set up sound for the projector. After about 30 seconds, an image showed up on the front wall of the conference room.

I then selected the video source for the projector to be computer. I expected that the image on the wall will then change to what is on the laptop screen. But nothing happened. The image on the wall didn't change.

 

Something should have been wrong. It must be the connection between the VCR cable and the laptop. I pulled the cable out of the port, and plug it in again using more strength. Was this working? Apparently not. The projected image remained the same starting up image of the projector.

 

Then what would be the problem? I checked the selection button for the projector, it was set to computer, as indicated on an instruction sheet on the wall near the buttons. The computer was working fine, and the projector was on, while the only problem was the connection between those. Was there anything wrong with this cable? I looked at the cable, which looked to be rather old. Some parts of its plastic cover have cracked.

 

I looked at the clock on the other side of the wall. It was 2:40 PM now. I hadn't copy the file to the laptop from my USB drive. That was not a problem... I could do it in one minute. But before that I needed to get the projector working properly... Seemed that I could do nothing more than pulling out the cable and plugging it in again.

 

There was a telephone number on the instruction sheet. It said "for questions call *******". I took my cell phone out of the bag and tried to call this number, but I found that my cell phone was not working in this room. On the top of the phone screen there was a message that said "no service". 

 

I had to go to the front desk to ask for help. I did. The girl there was a little nervous to hear that there was a problem, as the expert who knew these things was not there at that time. After asking another girl to substitute for her for a while, she went to the conference room with me.

 

"The projector is on, and the computer is on." She said to herself. And then --- she found out what the problem was here.

 

As she pointed it out to me, I saw a label that said "VCR/LCD" printed on the "8" key on the laptop keyboard. She told me that this key can be used to change the image output status of the laptop system. There are three statuses for image output. 1) Only output to the LCD screen. 2) Output to both LCD and VCR. 3) VCR only. By clicking this key and the FN (function) key simultaneously, we can change the status cyclicly. So in order to send the image to the VCR in addition to LCD, we just need to click this key and FN once at the same time. If we click again, then the image on the LCD will be turned off, but the projected image will remain...

 

I thanked the girl and told her that I was happy to learn something about the image output status.  She smiled and left with a "good luck for your prelim".

 

There are always something new to learn. Is this a good thing or bad thing?

My schedule was quite tight today.

From 8:30 to 9:30 AM, copied my proposal for the prelim and put those in the mailboxes of commettee members.

Was making slides in the following hours...

Had lunch at 12:00 AM

Then continued working on the slides...

Had a nap from 1:10 to 2:00 AM

Then drove to the dentist's office to get my teeth cleaned (I hate to do this everytime, but have to...)

Had a short nap after getting home

Sent SD to the airport... (got to know that China Palace was closed every Monday in the summer)

Prepared the dinner from 5:20 to 6:20 PM

Had dinner from 6:20 to 7:00 PM

Then had a bath and went to bed, slept for a hour

Then continued working on slides...

Browsed news on the web from time to time...

 

The happiest time... Seems OK the whole day except at the dentist's office. But the most relaxing time is now, listening to music and writing blog

The best gift for tomorrow: the leftover dinner, haha

 

在路上

苏曼

曲：五轮真弓 词：姜宇

一个人走在路上 向着远方去流浪
只有风儿轻轻唱 故乡已在远方
在故乡的小路上 妈妈在盼望
盼望会有那一天 我会回到她身旁

秋风起呀树叶黄 落叶飘在我肩上
异乡的路好漫长 只有影子在身旁
拨开乌云抬头望 一片灿烂阳光
最后望一眼故乡 把足迹留四方

 

－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

is what you have lost.

 

The most appealing knowledge

is what you haven't learned.

 

The most beautiful apparel

is the one too expensive for you to own.

 

The most delicious food

is a tiny bite you once tasted.

 

This is not a new discovery... I just found that I made a mistake the other day...

 

We are all making mistakes all the time. We always tend to despite what is easy to get, ignore the basic reasonings, and admire things we know little about.

 

What you already have is the most important thing for you. Please cherish those.

 

What you have learned is the most useful knowledge. Please review them from time to time.

 

What you wear right now is a perfect fit. Please feel confident.

 

What you prepared this afternoon is a wonderful dinner. Please enjoy it.

 

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

 

 

 

My advisor had many of his books to give away, because 1) all of us are moving to the new office places soon and his new office will be much smaller than his current one; 2) he plans to retire next year, and he wants to reorganize his books.

 

Anyway, he decided to give away about two thirds of his book belongings. Of course, my officemate (another student of my advisor) and I got most of the benefits. He chose more than 40 of those books, and I chose more than 100. I will add the titles of those books I got into my book list at my convenience. It is really a big wealth! Last Friday we took those books home; my officemate used two boxes to package those books and I used 4 boxes. It is so heavy. Still there were some books which neither of us chose, not because those are not good books, but because there are too many for us to carry and store so we have to give up some. Our advisor put those left on a desk in the hallway of our department, and placed a label "free books". He also sent all people in our department an email to tell that there were free books available. Several days have passed by and the only books left on the desk were the dissertations of the former students of my advisor. It seems that dissertations are the most unpopular books... I hope that my future disseration will not be left on a desk in the hallway for a long long time with nobody interested in it; but this is only my wish. If my future dissertation would be put on the desk, I suspect that not many people will have the interest to pick it up to read a line. This is the reality: disserations have to focus on a sharp topic, which is usually of no interest to most other people, even people in the same department will have no motivation to read it. Of course, sometimes during the research you find one specific dissertation extremely important to you; it may even become your "bible" because it covers the most recent advances in the topic you are doing. Then you have to look it up in the web, and sometimes pay money to have a copy delivered to you from the library of another university, and wait two weeks for it to arrive... So this is the function of dissertations: it may not be of interest to most people in most times, but it may be invaluable for specific person in specific time.

 

Talking about this, I think of one friend who just got 10 dollars in check from a remote institute; the person sent my friend this check because he read my friend's dissertation, found it useful and decided to buy it (actually I am not sure what he decided to buy, a copy of that or something else). This is an exciting news. Ten dollors are not a big deal, but the message that somebody is intereted to use your work is very exciting. I know that my friend's dissertation is on a theoretical topic, full of formulas and theorems, and seems far from the real world. And it is a narrow topic, which not many people will be interested in. But - there are people interested; and the research will not terminate but continue, and his thoughts will inspire others'. Isn't this pleasant to know?