Happy Mother's Day!!

First year into college, for the 2009 Mother's Day, Michelle bought me a notebook.  On the cover page, it says -

Dear Mom,

I know you said you didn't want anything for Mother's Day, but I have been wanting to give this for you for a while.  Now that I'm in college, you have a lot more time to yourself, to reflect on love and life and everything.  So, I hope you'll make use of this and record all your profound thoughts and wise words.  Do it for yourself and for me, because one day, I'll want to read this.

After all, no textbook, no class, no $50,000 education can teach a girl what her mother's advice will.

Love,
Chelle-chelle

Mother's Day, 2009

April 13, 2013

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Weather:  Low clouds, 36F with snow flurries

Location:  U.S. Postal Office, Naperville, IL

Clerk:  "Is there anything fragile in the package?"

Me:  "No, it's my check to the government."

Clerk:  "Which delivery option would you like?  We have...."

Me:  "The cheapest!"

So, $1.72 will carry my significant contribution to the IRS!  

As much as I support the notion of every responsible citizen should pitch in to help build a stronger country, I pray every day that my hard-earned $$ will not be wasted.  I pray every day to have an effective way for me to contribute my $$ to strengthen America's education and healthcare systems.

I read the book below back in 2006, and am reading it again -- it's a fascinating book, at least it was 7 years ago...

**************************************

The World Is Flat

By Thomas L. Friedman

National Bestseller

There is a saying in China that whatever you put in your head and your stomach, no one can take away from you.  In this whole region, Hong Kong , Japan , South Korea and China , that's in their DNA.

When it comes to the flat world, is America prepared?  It's not...  You've gotten a little contented and slow, and the people who came into the field with triple convergence are really hungry.  Immigrants are always hungry - and they don't have a backup plan.

What is really scary is that China is not attracting so much global investment by simply racing everyone to the bottom.  That is just a short-term strategy.  China's real long-term strategy is to outrace America and the E.U. countries to the top.  So in thirty years, we will have gone from "sold in China" to "made in China" to "designed in China" to "dreamed up in China."

When I asked Bill Gates about the supposed American education advantage - an education that stresses creativity, not rote learning - he was utterly dismissive.  In his view, those who think that the more rote learning systems of China and Japan can't turn out innovators who can compete with Americans are sadly mistaken.  Said Gates, "I have never met the guy who doesn't know how to multiply who created software...  You need to understand things in order to invent beyond them."

One cannot stress enough:  Young Chinese, Indians, and Poles are not racing us to the bottom.  They are racing us to the top.  They do not want to work for us; they do not even want to be us.  They want to dominant us - in the sense that they want to be creating companies of the future that people all over the world will admire and clamor to work for. 

In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears.  In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears - and that is our problem.

You cannot maintain rising standards of living in a flattening world when you are up against competitors who are getting not only their fundamentals right but also their intangibles.  China does not just want to make GM cars.  It wants to be GM and put GM out of business.  Anyone who doubts that should spend time with young Chinese.  

The world is being flattened.  You can flourish in this flat world, but it does take the right imagination and the right motivation.  The world needs us to be forever the generation of strategic optimists, the generation with more dreams than memories, the generation that wakes up each morning and not only imagines that things can be better but also act on that imagination every day.

308 Days Later...

Often times, we spend a tremendous amount of energy seeking minimal incremental improvement in what we do.  Is it really worth it?  Are we crazy??!!  Obviously, the answer varies depending on your perspective.  In my case, it took me 308 days to have a chance to see the "minimal incremental improvement".  

Can you even tell the difference??? 

The truth is, I don't think either is good enough only because I was too afraid of risking my life to move the tripod further out to take the shot...  But let me tell you, if you want to be the best, you must be willing to risk everything!  So, the obvious conclusion is:  I will never be the best, and sadly, I might have come to terms with that :-)

Colorado River at the Horseshoe Bend

Page, Arizona

April 6, 2013

A journey vs. a musical thing...

As always, my life continues to be filled with drama!

Earlier last week, I went to Arizona for a meeting at some fancy resort.  Drove from the Phoenix airport and my lovely GPS directed me to this nowhere land...  Just imagine the rest of the story. 

Friday afternoon, after the meeting, I was on my way from Phoenix to Page, Arizona to spend the weekend in high deserts.  It was supposed to be an easy 4-hour drive, but it turned into a more than 8 hours journey.  About 25 miles from Page (just think about how close I was to my final destiny), a section of the highway 89 was totally destroyed by a landslide.  It was impassible so when you get to the closed section of the road, the little red sign would direct you to an unexpected 4-hour detour...  At that point, a GPS is completely useless!  It's probably hard for you to imagine the rest of the story, as the pain and the darkness is pretty unimaginable!

Remember the FL sinkhole and the WA landslide??  The world has randomly become a very scary place!!!

Anyways, I did some photography work, but not nearly as intense as what I had anticipated.  Maybe due to the high stress from all the driving drama during the week, for once, I decided to just ENJOY life -- enjoy the boat rides in Lake Powell and the spirituality in Sedona...

As my little Michelle perfectly put in her Facebook:

We thought of life by analogy with a journey, with a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end and the thing was to get to that end... but we missed the point the whole way along: it was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing and dance while the music was being played.

       

       

My English

Occasionally, people would kindly comment on my English and remind me that I can actually communicate :-) 

Yeah, looking back, for the past decade, I've put a lot of effort in trying to improve my English.  Part of the motivation came from the fact that I would NEED to adequately communicate with Michelle's middle school teachers, friends, friends' parents, and then, her high school and college friends... and then, finally, her med school friends!  Over the past 11 years, I have been frequently reminded that my English needs improvement -- thank goodness for all the notes from my little Michelle and her diligent work to set up the right classes for me.  I am forever grateful for having such a thoughtful, logical, creative and disciplined teacher!!     

The English Correction Program

4/21/2002 (Age 11)

 

Dear Ms. Tang,

 

Thank you for choosing the English Correction Program!  You have chosen Grammar for your subject.  Your first class will be on Sunday, 4/28/02, at 7:00 p.m.  You will be learning mostly about how to communicate with other people using correct grammar and you will also learn the correct tenses of word (past tense, future tense, etc.).  For each class, you will need to bring with you a sheet of notebook paper and a pencil.  I suggest that you get a notebook just for English classes if you decide to take more courses.  I will bring all other necessities for the class.  For this class, there will also be certain benefits and offers with your try out course.

 

1.  This is a FREE course.

2.  You will receive coupons for a variety of things if you do well in this class.

3.  You may stop taking the class if you decide it is not right for you.

4.  I will take into consideration any suggestions you have.

5.  You will be able to have fun during classes.

6.  You will learn MORE!!!

 

Please do not be late for class and arrive with your materials.  If for any reason you cannot make it to your class for the day, please contact me before hand.

 

Sincerely,

Michelle Zhang, Teacher

*****************************

Michelle actually ran a monthly newspaper <<The Nutmeg Times>> for about 18 months when she was 11.

2/20/2002 (Age 11)
   
Mom,

In order to make "The Nutmeg Times" more interesting to read, I will need some replies to my papers.  As I said before, there is a folder for replies, comments, etc.  Please take advantage of it and send some replies, comments, submissions, etc.  Make an effort to make our monthly newspaper better than ever.  You will get credit and everyone will know that you can write, too!  Think of all our loyal fans and please contribute to the making of our paper.  We are especially in need of topics for our regular issues!  And I know that you are able to write GREAT poems, so please try to write a few for the Nutmeg Times.  But remember that I cannot promise to put it in the paper, but I still encourage you to try.

Sincerely,

Michelle Zhang

Reporter, Writer, Printer and Editor in Chief of the Nutmeg Times

Not sure why she called herself a "Printer."  The person who is responsible for printing the paper?  Why a Printer???  I didn't catch it 11 years ago... but now that my English has improved, I wonder if that's a mistake...

Youth

Youth

Samuel Ullman

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

2013 Photographic Society of America Award

Golden

Canadian Rockies
April 9, 2012