Shawshank's 岁月点滴

Found interesting reading.
We all know hormones influences our height, strength, emotion, etc. it is also playing a powerful role in the other chemistry – love.
Here is a table

It’s scary to see how much those chemicals are driving the feelings whileinfluencing judgement, and many times brain power is just, powerless.

And it still doesn’t answer why people become so attached to their pets — It’s must be something else, another chemical…

A news quietly broke out today, Bill Gates just donated $750 million to AIDS fund. $750 million, and that’s just a scoop of his donations to the world.
People often compare Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the two IT geniuses born and excelled in the same ages. Most of the times attention and accolade were given to Jobs, while leaving Gates an image of no more than a tough, awkward, stubborn and relentless businessman.
This treatment is unfair to Bill. Both are unquestionably the most successful IT genius. But when it comes to philanthropy, Jobs falls from a giant to a dwarf. Despite the public’s close scrutiny, people cannot find any evidence Mr. Jobs has ever donated a penny to any charity. All people had to say is to give him “the benefit of doubt” he might have made some donations in private, which is nothing more than wishful thinking. In comparison, Bill Gates has donated over $1.5billion through Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest private charitable fund in the world.
Both have made some inspirational speeches. Here is one by Gates:

And here is the famous one by Steve Jobs:

Have you noticed the biggest difference? Nearly every line of Jobs’ speech has the word “I” or “me”, while Gates’ speech are filled with “people”, “humanity”, “poverty”, “inequality”. The two speeches were made around the same time (2005, and 2007), but they reflected totally different values held by the two men.

Texasshawshank have said: “We are where we’ve come from”. Our experiences carved out character, belief, and values. Born into a wealthy family, Bill Gates’ father was a prominent lawyer, his mother was a successful businessperson and served with IBM’s CEO in the executive board. In fact, Microsoft’s first operating system — PC-DOS, which Bill developed for IBM, would not have been possible if it had not been for his mother. In some sense, Bill Gates is a 富二代, a well-educated, successful kid from a successful, abundant family. The genius in Gates and Jobs is probably the only thing the two men have in common. Jobs was adopted in a lower middle class family, his parents exhausted almost all resources trying to give Steve the best education while struggled to make ends meet. As a result, he was a rebellious, disruptive maverick even from preliminary school, and gradually grew into a short-tempered, harsh, unforgiving, selfish and greedy bigotry. Yes, as a businessman, he was successful in bring Apple into the most valuable company in the world, but as a human being, he is an utter failure.

We as social animals, are not living in vacuum. The sole selfish “me” will eventually destroy any relationship, or civilization. While the whole world is worshiping Steve Jobs, I hope the fanfare doesn’t go beyond his creativity, dedication and determination to the path, not the person. There are other people deserving more of our admiration to become our inspiration.

Now, can I ask if you have watched Bill Gate’s speech above? It has three parts. Watch them all, and you will realize how much we have misunderstood him and how great a man he is. At this point, my English vocabulary falls short.
“Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied in reducing inequity” He is the altruistic one who has truly changed the world.

You’d better know what to expect before stepping into something. The Iron Lady is a great movie.It’s a movie about politics, nor historical facts, or Thatcher’s achievements, but about a person, a woman, a woman with beliefs and courage to act on her beliefs, and a man who silently standing by her and transform her beliefs into herself.

As perhaps the best actress ever, Meryl Streep performed once again superbly in the movie. Paired with female director Phyllida Lloyd, she artistically depicted a Margret Thatcher that’s not seen from the public eyes. The deep, inter-dependent relationship sure arouses much envy, jealousy, and admiration. Truly great relationship is not about passion, the ultimate fulfillment is not about having kids around, but about harmony. Yes, the word harmony is the word that’s never pronounced but said out loud in the movie. All these are delivered through the desolate subtlety never found in American movies.

Some movies are meant to be thought over, some are meant to be felt. Open up yourself and feel it, hope you will find it a two hours well spent too.

Trivia: the most memorable quote:
“Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

下午无所事事，逛至MFAH东面 annex 的欧馆，竟然发现猴子屯还有数位印象派大诗的作品，如塞上，雷诺阿，摸奶，等。唯独抹油范糕。
想想饭糕这苦命孩子，生时穷困潦倒，名为饭糕，但却食不果腹，成天靠弟弟接济。无奈雪上加霜又被关进精神病院。上帝也自私得很，早早把便他招去专门为他作画，让我们这些臣民们无缘。猴子屯满城遍地奔驰爆马，不是穷孩子们呆的地儿，想必饭糕这孩子就敬而远之了。
天色将晚，正往外走时前面映入此画：

看看画风，色彩凝重，多少有些形似饭糕；而看看内容，似乎又像是摸奶爆有名的日本花园系列。又想到摸奶老迈时老眼昏花，都看不清了，涂鸦出来说不定就是这个样子了。这是不是他在那个时候画的芽？走近一看，还真是，此画在1922年成幅，4年后他就挂了。
摸奶早年成功，终生衣食无忧，所以画之主题多半乃田园风光，市井风情，老婆孩子热炕头，云云。到半瞎时所作还能令买家趋之若鹜。
饭糕摸奶，随皆为印象派巨匠，而境遇之迥异，让人感叹人各有命。都说上帝面前人人平等，只是有些比别的更平等些，而在这没有最平等，只有更平等之间竟还能有如此天壤之别。
古人经历尚且如此，相比自己所得之因果报应，便觉不足挂齿了。

It was high key last night. This morning it’s about low key. Low key can deliver a more dramatic effect and makes the subject standing out more vividly. Studios like high key much better than low key because it’s much easier to setup the lighting conditions — all you need to do is light up EVERYWHERE. Lighting control for low key is much trickier. Strength, direction, harshness of the lights all needs to be carefully controlled, interference, or convergence of lights from different sources also becomes significant.

Here is this morning’s setup: A beauty dish with grills as the main light (the grill is for directional control), a hair light from the top, an optional background light with nozzle (again nozzle is for directional control), and a softbox for fill light.
Setup:

1: Polo-1.

2: Polo-2

3: Polo-3

Here hair light is critical as you can tell the difference from the one without hair light below:

All the thanks goes to Olivier, he brought back from Shanghai for me another flash, plus two wireless trigger receiver! While I was waiting for Mad Money download, I quickly loaded camera and, based on existing lighting setup (As you will see in the first photo attached), and shot a small set up studio portrait! 15 minutes, from start, to RAW to JPEG output! What’s the most noteworthy part? The model is Polo!

Here is the lighting setup: (pretty straightforward 3 (2) light high-key setup) (Click on thumbnail to see 1:1 photo, they are beautiful!)

1: Look at this, this setup is called Rembrandt Lighting, named after art maestro Rembrandt:

2: The beauty dish reflection from his eyes means 90% of the whole picture!

3: Now switched to three light setup:

4: Just another one, looking astray is way better than straight!

BTW, can you tell the slight difference between 1,2 and 3,4?
The shadow left on the right side in 1,2 has been filled by another light on the right in 3,4. But it seems it’s more popular to setup as in 1,2 as the shallow shadows brings a bit of prospective to the otherwise flat photo.

Q: “What should I do if I already drove through the water?”

A: While you were driving in the water, you might felt engine lost power or sluggish, it’s all normal. That’s because it has to waste a lot of power expelling the water in the exhaust. As long as it didn’t die in it, you should be fine.

Otherwise, do the following check the second morning: Start up the engine, press the gas to rev up the engine to 2000rpm, and check the exhaust. Do you smell vapor, or something burnt? What’s the color of the exhaust? white, or blue? If you find the latter true for both questions, engine damage might have occurred. Bring your car to the shop for a cylinder pressure check and possible repair. Otherwise, you should be good.

Some might see water vapor-ish thing coming out under the hood afterwards, it’s just the water escaping the hot engine parts and it’s completely normal.

Having said all these, most parts under the hood are at most water resistant, not water proof. Damage might still happen, among them: A/C compressor, since it’s usually the lowest component (most likely the clutch assembly); power steering (especially if yours is electronic); electric system; brake system; wheel bearings (water might dilute the grease).

《《本篇故事纯属虚构，如有雷同纯属巧合》》

新年一到事情还真不少。下午临下班收到部门同事R的email，说他将在2周内离开公司。有趣的是这个email在我们几个同事之间没有引起任何反响。
ZT是我们部门经理，自从20年前从一家知名咨询公司辞职，便和R一起搞了个2人咨询公司。ZT有一张特别会说的嘴和一个没有任何头绪的脑子，但就是靠这张嘴混迹江湖敛得钱财无数。我有时想上帝对人可真是不公品，只要我有他口才的1%，和他装B的胆子的0.5%就能满意得P颠P颠的了。
闲话少絮。去年ZT先是花了公司近0.5million的银子，把R和他的另一个朋友弄进来做了个所谓的咨询项目，狮子大张口要4百万辆银子做个什么数据仓库，并计划招他的朋友们做contractor造仓库。而我们公司是出名的radin,自然无果。ZT便退而求其次，把没工作没学位的R招进来。（这点看，ZT对哥们还是比较上路的）
可惜的是，新衣的皇帝始终会被人看到其实是赤身裸体的。一年过去了，非但我们组现有的项目被他们弄得污七八糟，连新项目的资金都有了问题。几天前听说ZT又另谋高就，我和同事们都不约而同长处一口气曰:”ZT您这位爷快走吧，这是Win-Win”，我们终于可以做些正事，而ZT和R也可以继续在下一个冤大头那里招摇撞骗。Connecting the dots，我们自然对R的离职毫不惊讶。

废话说了这么多，终于可以切入主题。ZT去年1月上任到现在一年，这一年中，我的心从失望（因为申请经理位置违愿）到期待（ZT可与程咬金有得一拼）,到失望，到气愤，到愤怒，到沮丧，到思考，到振作，真如过山车一般，回想一下真是五味杂陈，感触万千。教会里的人经常说，如果你命不顺，其实是上帝在考验你。现在看遇到个驴肛门，也是一个考验，所以关键是怎么面对。当时的失望和愤怒在现在看是那么幼稚，那样不就是自己面对颓势举手投降吗？真的勇士敢于直面惨淡的人生，敢于正视淋漓的鲜血，而我却有段时间忙着当逃兵找工作，真是可耻。我们面对上学的考试都知道要得高分，而面对着无形的考卷，有时却输得很惨。
好在后来发现真的是书中自有颜如玉，一番醍醐灌顶后才觉今时而昨非，慢慢学会应对。原来程咬金也有弱点；原来小蚂蚁也能四两拨千斤，让程咬金无法动弹；原来人际关系的游戏可以这么玩也可以那么玩，原来我也能玩转公司政治。经过几个月，终于看到事态的发展渐渐落在掌中。终于尘埃落定时已在转角处。从这个角度看还真应该感谢ZT和R，要学到这些这些技巧和心态，是任何课程或是培训里都没有的。

公司是一个萝卜地，看着又有一个坑要空出来，到了该行动的时候了。它和新年一同到来。结果怎样我不知道，但我现在知道要相信：世界上任何一个问题都会有一个解决的办法。绝不不去拼试就扔毛巾。
Problem is nothing. Attitude is everything.

[UPDATE 01/10/2012] ZT昨天正式辞职，和我预计的日期完全一致。