Saturday, October 31, 2015

The World of WeChat (微信)

I should title this email as "The World without WeChat"

It is hard to believe that it's been almost 2 years since I got dragged into "The World of WeChat."  Even though I passionately resisted it at the very beginning (as evidenced by the email below), over the past few years, WeChat has become a significant way of life for many people including myself -- very unfortunate, but also irreversible. 

So, the sad story for today is -- my company decided to take away my perfectly beautiful iPhone 5s and give me a brand new iPhone 6s.  Why???  Because somehow they believed it would be GOOD for me.

It took IT all day to set up my new phone.  For the entire day, I failed to function at my full capacity because everything I needed was on my phone... When my lovely new phone finally arrived at my desk, I shockingly discovered that my WeChat was GONE!!  As painful as it seemed at the moment, after a few hours of digesting the reality, I've gained a whole new perspective:  when you know the VERY FEW important things in life, you can easily let go of everything else -- it's just that simple...   

I feel totally liberated now!



From: Pei Tang <tang_pei@yahoo.com>
To: Pei Tang <tang_pei@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2013 10:58 PM
Subject: The world of WeChat (微信)
 


I feel the need to make a record on my history book about a significant event in my life -- I have finally entered the World of WeChat.  After 48 hours of testing the water, I have confirmed that yes, it is indeed a world of chaos -- it sucks your brain and consumes your life like you would not believe...

The truth is, many of my good friends kindly recommended WeChat to me a LONG time ago.  I declined only because I knew it would undoubtedly interfere with my Zen world.  But after my trip to Mongolia, it occurred to me that this would be an effective way for me to be in touch with my friends in China.  So, before opening the WeChat account, I decided to only add 2 of my friends from China.

Well, as we all know, life rarely happens according to plans...  What I learned over the past 48 hours was -- if you get into a group that you don't want to be in, suck it up -- you're on your own!  Yeah, life sucks, isn't it???

So, for those long-term 微信 lovers, this is for you:

国 庆大典上,走来第57个民族。主持人这样解说:现在走过来的是微信方阵。他们身穿睡衣,肩扛枕头,左手手机,右手充电宝,身后背着一锅心灵鸡汤,胸前挂着 佛经和养生秘方,个个转发着正能量,自吟着立志经典和闷骚段子,目光呆滞,神情麻木,个别的还在跳大神。主席:“同志们辛苦了!” 微信方阵响亮回答:“主席,天安门 WiFi 密码是多少?”


Monday, October 19, 2015

Less stuff, more happniess...

I was driving Rudi to the airport yesterday morning when we listened to Graham Hill's Life Edited on NPR. 

Graham was only 28 when he sold his start-up company and became a multi-millionaire.  He immediately bought a lot of STUFF, then realized that all the STUFF he bought did not make him happier than before. So, he started traveling the world to tell stories of sustainability and minimalism.  I am a true believer of minimalism.  I totally agree that less stuff in life will give us more freedom, and simplicity in life will give us more time -- freedom and time is what allows us to be fully present to enjoy what's around us and be happy!!

Here is the TED talk he gave back in 2011.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Acadia: October 2015

It's been exactly four years since I visited Acadia National Park with Michelle.  Still remember that Friday night in 2011 when we drove from Boston to Acadia -- heavy rain came down really hard and the narrow roads in the dark were pretty challenging to drive... 

I was in Boston for work last week so we spent a long weekend at Acadia -- to smell the ocean, listen to the waves, watch the nightly sky, and most of all, enjoy the fall colors.  It was a very sweet, nice and quiet weekend.  Brought all my camera gears, but only took 3 pictures with it -- literally 3 pictures of the same frame -- that's it!!  iPhone is taking over my photography career -- thank goodness to Steve Jobs, haha!

Picture 1 = Michelle and I in October 2011 at Acadia

Picture 2 = Michelle and I in October 2015 at Acadia (almost the same spot)

Picture 3 = Nightly Sky - Acadia: 10/10/2015