Serenity

2008 is a very special year for me. There are too many things happened. I've stayed in four completely different environment, and a part of my dream has come true, and I'm now in a totally different living style. Too many stories to tell.



In the beginning of 2008, I was stilling doing research. I restudy HITS and PageRank, and tried to get some new ideas. The progress was very slow, and I forgot what else I've done during January to March. I only remembered that I took some time to prepare the apply of the internship program in Google, Taiwan, and to think whether I should study in PhD in American. Although I got a stronger desire on 2/02 for persuading the degree of PhD, the desire was getting smaller as time went by. I also learned Rails and finished a case simultaneously during the winter vocation, and finished reading the whole book of "Java Puzzle". "Java Puzzle" is a really good book that teched me many tips in Java. It's a pity that I almost forgot what I learned because I had long time not programmed in Java.

Since I was a senior student in college, I restarted to play basketball again. I chose basketball as my exercise because it would not be boring to exercise with friends. Most of the players were my roommates, and there were some from our classmates. After we graduated from the college, playing basketball together had an additional meaning for us: to meet friends.

We have continued to play for a long period until the last summer vocation. During that period, since we were all busy and the weather was too hot to stand. The basketball game was stopped for several months. Then, after I finished parts of my master thesis, I thought we needed to keep playing basketball again. Playing basketball together can help us exercise and meet regularly; if you could kill two birds with one stone, why not to do it?

Therefore, we started to play basketball again since last November; however, there was some small different. Some of our players attended less frequently. We faced a serious problem: we didn’t have enough members to play a normal game. Coincidently, a friend who I knew by co-working previously joined us. Moreover, he brought many his basketball team members to play with us. The good news was that we finally had enough players; however, the bad news was that they were all come from the team of our department – which means they had very good skills in basketball. Then, we couldn’t play and chat simultaneously; instead, we have more exercise now, and chat after the game ends.

When I was a high school student, I read an essay which said that what the author learned in his college life is to make a good habit. Except his good habit, the other things he learned in the college is little helpful to his job.

I understand this principle in my early life. For example, I’m lucky that I am used to collect data and think before trusting what I read and heard, even when I was a boy. At the beginning I adopted this principle in mathematics. As I am getting older, I adopt this principle for more types of things. This habit helps me build up a good self-learning ability which is proved to be useful in my life.

However, I cannot make up my mind to keep another good habit, getting up early and going to bed early. As I am getting older, I realize that what great people said is correct: we cannot finish a great job without a robust body, so the most important thing to do is keeping a regular life and doing exercises. Maybe I give myself too much freedom to follow a healthy schedule. Once I go to bed late, I cannot get up early in the next morning, and this leads to that I cannot fall into asleep even I suddenly make up my mind to go to bed early.

Last year, I wrote the article "Review of 2006", and recently I found that it’s interesting to reread it after several months. Therefore, I decide to write this kind of article again.

Same as last year, I look back my diaries, and found that I didn’t do any special things in January except that I attended an English camp with two weeks. In the camp, I knew the teacher Magar who is intelligent, humor and good at speaking. I came to visit him for revising my English diary in the next semester. It’s terrific that I keep that habit for a whole semester. I felt that my writing was improved during that period.

Summer’s Left is the name of one of my favorite piano songs. About three years ago, I found a rearrange piano album named Kanon Air Piano Arrange Album “Re-feel” (also known as Re-feel for short) on the Internet. I loved this album very much, so I asked my friend’s help to buy this CD from Japan because it didn’t sell in Taiwan. The price index in Japan is higher than the one in Taiwan, so I paid about NTD 700 which was the double of the normal price for CDs in Taiwan, however, it was worthy! I have listened to this album for hundreds times.

Beside the CD, the publisher also provided three piano scores of this CD so that buyers can play the same music as the songs in this CD. As a young man who has learned piano for a while, of course I gave it a trial after receiving the CD immediately. After some trials, I found that the scores are absolutely correct, so I can play the same music as the songs in this CD in deed! However, the premise is that I have good enough skill.

During these years, I practice my skill in piano sometimes. Although I don’t practice with much time, I still improve my skill a little. This summer, I made up my mind to challenge these songs again. I chose Summer’s Left as the first target because this is my favorite one in this CD. I like its name, too. Actually, the original name in Japanese is 夏影 which means the shadow of summer, but I found that the name in English is Summer’s Left. I don’t know the reason why the publisher changed the name in English, but I like it. The name Summer’s Left reflects similar feeling as夏影 in both Japanese and Chinese; however, the direct translated name Summer’s Shadow is somewhat weird.

( This articled have been revised by Magar. )

There is a famous program named “Britains Got Talent”. The program will invite some special people and let them show their special skills. As is usual with normal programs, there are some judges who give some comments and determine whether the performers will reach the next stage of the contest or not. This year, an unbelievable performer appeared.

The performer was a man, and he looked a little shy. Before he started to perform his act, one of the judges asked him what he was going to perform. And he answered shortly “To sing opera”. The judges didn’t like his response. But after he sang the first sentence, everybody on the program changed his/her face. The singing was so amazing that no one had expected it to be so good.. The performer sang the song “Nessun Dorma” from the famous opera Turandot. Although I haven’t seen the opera before, the song is so famous that I have heard it several times. As a result of his glorious voice, a member of the audience seemed to burst into tears. My eyes felt a little wet, too. After the show finished, both the audience and the judges clapped and shouted loudly.. Finally, he was declared the champion without any doubt.

When it was winter, I didn't like the cold weather, and I thought that higher temperature is better than lower one. But now I think cooler is better than hotter.

Sometimes people are forgettable; maybe we have too small brain to memorize all things. During the cold days in each year, I recall that I don't like the cold days, but I think that I like hot days more. During the hot days, I recall that I also don't like the hot days. So now I really hope that summer could pass faster, I'm expecting the winter come.

Air conditioning is a great invent that saves many people in summer, but I don't like it very much. I don't like the fast change of temperature; no matter it is changing from hot to cold or from cold to hot. After staying in a room with a air conditioning, going to somewhere without a air conditioning makes me uncomfortable, and vice versa.

It rained very much and persisted for a long time yesterday. In the morning, I was waken up by the sound of the rain, and then I closed the window and went back to sleep. When my eyes had opened for the day, it was noon again - just like the usual days.

But it was still raining! Since wearing a rainwear was inconvenient, I didn't want to go out to have lunch. In order to handle this kind of situation, I had bought some instant noodles before. This was the best situation to eat instant noodles.

I was glad that it was Saturday and students don't have courses on Saturday, so I didn't need to go to the university. Also, I knew it rains seldom in HsinChu, if it rains today, the following days will rain with less probability. But my good mood was disappeared in the evening because it was still raining! This time I needed to make a decision whether or not I would go out to have dinner and make me wet. Before long, I made up to have another kind of instant noodles. I thought I had made a good decision to buy two kinds of instant noodles.

Latest I try to listen in Japanese while I am going to bed. Instead of listening the context in the textbooks, I listen in dramas. Here, dramas don’t mean the classical ones such as “Phantom of the Opera”. The entertainment business in Japan is very strong. For example, when a game becomes popular, companies will make relevant goods with similar scripts in animations, comics, fictions, and dramas. In contrast, if a comic becomes popular, companies will make games, etc. Also, companies can sell relevant CDs, posters and calendars. We call these goods as ACG relevant goods. ACG is the abbreviation of Animation-Comic-Game because they are the main industries in these goods. The dramas which I listen in are the ACG-relevant goods.

Since ACG is interesting, listening in dramas is not painful. The most serious problem in textbooks is boring. No matter how clear and informative the textbooks are, if I can’t finish reading/listening in them, they teach me nothing. On the other hand, ACG-relevant dramas can’t teach me formally, but I can finish them with higher probability. By a long time experiences of watching Japanese animations and taking a little elementary courses, I had some ability in Japanese. For example, I can listen in the dramas and understand them naturally without translating them into Chinese first, the way I understand Japanese is as natural as I do in Chinese. Although my English ability is better than Japanese one, I think my potential in Japanese is larger because the way I learn in Japanese is better than in English. It’s more natural and interesting in learning Japanese. I had been listening in the dramas for a long time before. After a long time “training”, my listening in Japanese improved a lot. However, I stopped listening in the dramas someday. I forgot the reason why I stopped. Maybe I’ll remember the reason after listening for a while these days.

As what I’ve said, dramas are not textbooks, so they can’t teach me formally and incrementally. I need find appropriated dramas for me. For example, as reading English fictions, no matter how interesting the fictions are, the first and the most important criterion is: I can understand it. This criterion also applies to listen in dramas in Japanese. The dramas I’m listening in now are “ARIA in Natural” CD 1 and 2. The stories are good and interesting. It can ease the nervous days. Reading the comics and watching the animations of ARIA are also good way to relax, but we can listen in dramas with closed eyes, so I think to listen in dramas is a better way to take a rest, and it helps me learning Japanese.

After Mr. Magar Etmekdjian read this essay, he gave me many advices, and I did some revision.

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As far as I can remember, my handwriting is not my strong point. Strictly speaking, it's awful.