Startbucks Patting Their Own Backs…
Posted by: tpsky on: February 17, 2007
Have you heard this news? Starbucks announced that they plan to double the amount of coffee they buy from East Africa to help the African coffee farmers. Well, before you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, read between the lines very carefully… They’re proposing to buy more, not pay more. Starbucks had reported that they paid an average of $1.23/pound last year. Well, my favorite mocha is now more than $3 per cup, and how many cups a pound of coffee beans make? Aren’t we all beaming with the pride of the brotherhood that Starbucks has set out for others to follow?
Check these links for references:
Being the Non-Alpha Female
Posted by: tpsky on: February 9, 2007
- In: Life| humor
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Heard on the NPR a colorful description of the personality issues some well-known, history-making explorers had, though these were virtually unknown facts behind their much glorified accomplishments. After all, as you can imagine, to live like a bear for months on end in a place that’s way colder than Massachusetts and have to suck ice for drinking water, with the constant thought on his mind being only how to get to that hut first to plug down that flag so he could have some cold dry beef jerky and his ears would be less than freezing can take…err…certain talents which not everyone possesses.
I have by this time come to the conviction that being the alpha female is just too much work. I’m way too busy worrying about whether my daughter had just poked her nose with the finger which she now put in my mouth, and whether the speck of cheese she picked up from the floor and immediately put in her mouth was from last week or this morning.
Still, I think my dad still harbors the hope that I’d win the Nobel price of physics someday. My parents worked tirelessly to raise me to be a winner since the day I was born. I remember one distant past weekend when my parents were watching a biographical movie about Chopin, and I was busy about the room doing whatever I was doing playing by myself. And then one of the scenes caught my eyes: Chopin was playing the piano and he was spitting up blood on the keyboard. I asked, “Why was he spitting up blood just by playing the piano?”
And here shows my parents’ effort to use every opportunity to teach life’s lessons to me. They said, “With the way you play the piano of course you wouldn’t spit up blood.”
Life’s lesson #1: Never associate with someone who would spit up blood just by playing the piano because otherwise your parents will forever point to that person and say to you, “Look so and so is putting so much effort into playing that piano. You’ll never spit up blood like her.”
There was another movie that had shaped my slightly misconstrued view of musicians. Once again, it was a foreign film that my parents were watching on a Sunday afternoon. All I understood from that movie was that there was a woman whose father wanted her to marry a concert pianist who was the bright shining star in the music world. And she thought she wanted him, too. Unfortunately, as she discovered that she simply couldn’t take that guy’s day and night drumming on that piano. And so she left him.
And that was why when I met my first real-life musician, I beat around the bush and asked:
“Do you practice on the piano all day and all night?”
“No,” said my then yet-to-be hubby, who plays Saxophone.
“What about blood? Do you find blood in your spit valve?”
“Huh? Sax don’t have spit valves,” he said. “Except baritone sax and contrabass sax. Do you want me to give you the entire history of woodwinds and brass instruments?”
“No. I was only interested in the potentially bloody aspect.”
“Does biting off the head of a bat count?”
“You bit off the head of a bat?”
“No. Ozzy Osbourne did. But I thought I ask.”
“Oh.”
Yes. That really set my mind at ease about marrying a musician.
Words to Live By
Posted by: tpsky on: February 4, 2007
Organized religions have a way of sparking inferred opinions when the followers are not afraid to stand out of the crowd. And usually when people try to explain to others, there is no amount of words that could prevent the audience from interpreting the said or written words from the unintended angle. Sometimes, even to each other in their own brotherhood and sisterhood. The Dunkers, now an all but unheard of religious sect, supposedly reacted to this human tendency to an extreme.
As the story went, Benjamin Franklin was a long-time acquaintance of one of the founders of the Dunkers, Michael Welfare. And when the good o’ Ben suggested to his friend that they might extinguish some of the vicious rumors spread about them if they could write down their abiding principles and rules of the church, Michael Welfare supposedly said the following:
When we were first drawn together as a society, it had pleased God to enlighten our minds so far as to see that some doctrines which we once esteemed truths, were errors, and that others, which we had esteemed errors, were real truths. From time to time He has been pleased to afford us farther light, and our principles have been improving, and our errors diminishing. Now we are not sure that we are arrived at the end of this progression, and at the perfection of spiritual or theological knowledge; and we fear that, if we should feel ourselves as if bound and confined by it, and perhaps be unwilling to receive further improvement, and our successors still more so, as conceiving what we their elders and founders had done, to be something sacred, never to be departed from. (Franklin, B.)
Sounds like extreme modesty. However when one reads it again, one may ask, who was deciding which brothers and sisters were getting the doctrines right and which others were getting the doctrines wrong? Where was the reference standard to tell them that their principles were improving and errors diminishing? My wild guess is that the Dunkers were a group of followers that believed in following just the bible and not by men’s words. They did not want their church leaders to write down any rules and doctrines, lest something new, something unintended by Jesus stemmed from it, and that people, as humans also have a tendency to hero worshiping, would start follow the leaders’ words instead of Jesus’ teachings. A very noble intention.
In fact, there is some truth to their claim. Mormons, for example, have the Book of Mormons. The Mormons do consider themselves Christians, even though their adherence to “gospels” that are in addition to the bible violates one of the passages in the bible:
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18)
Of course, one can also see their reasoning as a reluctance of making a commitment with their written words. After all, didn’t Martin Lomasney once said, “Never write if you can speak, never speak if you can nod, never nod if you can wink”? Not making any official statement avoids some accountability.
Enlightenment is a difficult subject. Born again Christians will tell you that God’s Holy Spirit enabled them to “know with certainty” that they’re with God, while a non-Christian will use many human logic to try to argue the existence of God, the trustworthiness of the words in the bible, and the testimonies of the Christians. The Christians will tell you that God said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13)”, while people who do not believe in the Christian God will point out the lunatics who blew up buildings or cults who committed group suicide also believed they were entering heaven. Even the bible itself said:
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1 Corinthians 1:19-25)
Truth. Don’t we all believe in one thing or another? And whether we write down our beliefs or not, we live our lives based on our beliefs. We act according to our beliefs, and then we experience the consequences of our actions. And then, just as we can’t see electricity or gravity, but can see evidences of these natural phenomenon from the consequences of regarding or disregarding the laws of physics, we find the truth about our beliefs. Truth. It’s looking right at us.
Resource:
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Magnum Books, 1968.
The NIV Holy Bible.
Certain Things Become Important When You Become A Parent
Posted by: tpsky on: December 31, 2006
Heard my other half on the phone the evening before we were coming home:
“Hi. When are you coming over?”
“Yeah, we’ll be here.”
“Yes. We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.”
“Well, as early as we can…we’d like to wait until MM pooped before we get on the road.”
The Right to Equal Rights
Posted by: tpsky on: December 22, 2006
Heard on the NPR a discussion about whether America is ready for a female president. And while I was contemplating the question, I heard another news regarding the issue of whether state troopers would be allowed to arrest illegal immigrants if they suspect the immigration law was broken. For example, while the state police would not go on patrols looking for illegal immigrant, they could arrest someone they stopped for speeding if, while examining the offender, they found evidence of violation of the immigration law.
Granted the issue has two sides to it, and either side has a point. It nevertheless reminds me of all the rights of citizenship such as the right to vote the politicians are trying to grant illegal immigrants these days. My family immigrated to this country when I was sixteen. And I can honestly say that these political gimmicks are downright insulting to those of us who followed the U.S. law to enter this country and then again abide by the U.S. legal process to become legal aliens and voting citizens.
Time Magazine Person of the Year
Posted by: tpsky on: December 19, 2006
This year I am the winner of the Time Magazine Person of the Year. Well, all right, I have to share this honor with millions and billions other people who use or create contents on the World Wide Web. I’d be interested to be a fly on the wall of the meetings they had for this.
“No, Rich, we already gave the computer the honor once in 1982.”
“Hey, we have a new Pope. How about the Pope?”
“No.” Everyone in unison.
“Why not? Don’t tell me you’re thinking about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”
“How about American men? We had the precedence of naming the American women before…”
“What have the American men done lately…”
“Don’t go there…”
“All right, how about this? Let’s give the honor to anyone who’s creating or using contents on the internet. Men…women…fifteen-year-old kids struggling with zits…”
“Even porn site creators and people who visit those sites?”
“Shut up, will you?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Good.”
“I’ll send the recommendation to the senior execs this afternoon.”
Then the Little Red Riding Hood Asked, “Why Is Your Mouth So Big, Grandma?”
Posted by: tpsky on: December 15, 2006
The new Gov. elect of Massachusetts Deval Patrick is planning his coronation extravaganza. Instead of an inaugural ball, he’s having seven. And to show that corporate endowments have no effect on him, he will accept corporate donations of up to $50,000. Each. The Gov. elect promised the events will be very inclusive. That is, if you pay the $50 for the ball. Make sure your fairy godmother give you some cash before you step into the carriage.
All in all, the inaugural committee is planning to spend more than $1 million on the events.
Somebody is happy. (“Mom and Dad, I made it!”)
There is always more jobs to cut and more taxes to raise.
Have We Amused Ourselves to Death Yet?
Posted by: tpsky on: December 7, 2006
My palm is broken. Now it only serves as an address book, since I can’t sync with my calendar anymore. And so I’ve been looking at the new Blackberries and Treo 680. But I’m not going to buy a replacement…yet. First of all, I need an excuse for why I’m not reachable, when I’m just standing over my phone and turning off the ringer. Also, checking emails constantly used to be fun, but I’m really getting tired of checking my emails because I never get any email just because anymore except when my contribution to the family reunion fund is needed. Checking out Flickr and shooting pictures on the go to post on Flickr sounds fun, but I don’t want to provoke any road rage by taking pictures of the SUV mom cutting in front of me on my commute. Blogging on the go…yes, it’s very tempting, especially when the traffic is just inching along…or when the teleconference is just going on and on and on…except that’s also when I have my breakfast, brush hair, get my morning news, cut my fingernails…one can only do so many things at once.
So, despite whatever Neil Postman said in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, my answer is: No. Not biting the dust yet.
Seth’s Prophetic Golden Dream
Posted by: tpsky on: November 27, 2006
- In: Humorous| fun
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There is this email that has been circulating. It lists 25 funniest analogies/metaphors collected from (supposedly) actual high school essays. (Many commenters of this blog believed they were actually purposely crafted by established writers, and not simple misuse of English language by high school students.)
Well, I have one bad paragraph of my own:
Seth had a prophetic dream the other night. In it, the air was filled with a golden hue, and a monkey was eating a banana. And when he woke up, there it was in the morning sun, a banana being eaten by his younger brother who was scratching himself like a monkey.
Bye Bye (a.k.a Hide and Seek)
Posted by: tpsky on: November 27, 2006
“Bye Bye,” my 19-month-old daughter M waved her hand. (Translation: Go hide so I can find you.)
“Bye Bye,” My husband and I enthusiastically waved back as we continued to sit around the kitchen table chatting.
“Bye Bye! Bye Bye!” Her voice now had an elevated urgency.
I looked at her smiling.
“Bye Bye,” she said again, flicking her hand with the look in her eyes that said, “Yes. You.”
“Okay, okay, I’m going.” I got up, while trying to finish my sentence. Just then…
“BYE! BYE!” An exasperated screech. (Translation: Get a hint, willya? Get lost!)
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