I for one wonder how many remote places in China are gradually becoming somewhat lawless.

The officials over there think they can do anything to the local people?

Tar sands (a.k.a. oil sands) can also be called "bitumen".

In the job market, there's an imbalance which job seekers often don't pay attention to, I think.

For the most part, when a person applies for a job position, he actually needs a job, otherwise he wouldn't bother to apply for it. On the other hand, when an employer posts a job position, it may not have real intention to get it filled, for whatever reasons.

Shall we call it an "imbalance of good faith"?

Do I sound like I'm grumbling? Anyway, I'm not looking for a job right now. Just some observation of mine from others' examples, some of whom are job seekers and the others of whom are (potential) employers.

Apple's decision makers seem to be so resolute in the keeping of their walled garden so far.

For instance, Apple hasn't ported their iTunes software to Linux. That's to their own detriment, IMHO.

Samsung has run away with the consumer hardware battle, in terms of market share.

Is it entering the consumer software field now?

Long is the list of the word "list"'s definitions.

"List" is a good word, as Lisp is a good programming language.

Beijing and Shanghai will always stay to be real squashes with the government policies of China tremendously favoring the two mega cities and so people flocking there.

I guess the better part of people would roll their eyes if you talk with them about job security.

In this information era, we are using so many software technologies. The better part of them appear to be erroneous from time to time.

Life is chaos for an information consumer like me.

I for one am afraid that moans of despair will emerge about actual polluted food chains resulted from oil sands extraction in Alberta, Canada.

Some people run away with the idea that powerful or capable businesspersons can keep making a lot of money by simply making phone calls and things like that.

People in the skirts of China, so to speak, cannot imagine how busy a typical Canadian's life is.

The life of Canadians and Americans is too technologically complicated. That's bad. People need to slow down.

A yard isn't always necessarily green.

It's that people often make it green out of their own preferences.

The world in various historical and cultural contexts

I'm fluent in two exclusive languages: Chinese and English. To me, the world still appears to be a difficult place to explore and maneuver, in historical and cultural contexts. Latin America, Oceania, Southern Asia, Southeastern Asia, Northern Europe, and Eastern Europe. Any of their histories I don't know. And their historical figures and their names look so strange and foreign to me.

For example, Bhai Baghel Singh "is celebrated in Sikh history as the vanquisher of Mughal Delhi." And the architectural wonder Taj Mahal in India "was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal." So these two historical items are closely related, cue the keyword "Mughal". But look, how many foreign words there are simply in those names!

I guess that if what one wants is a steady income, then he may vaguely or clearly regret over unimproved opportunities in the latter half or the end of his life.

I for one like the look and flair of Scotland Yard.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Yard.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New-Scotland-Yard-Victorian-building-Big-Ben-1890.jpg / GNU Free Documentation License)

The American mettle has somewhat influenced the Canadian one, I guess.

Obstreperous factions, blocs, influences, and forces are everywhere.

A food court is within the building, and a court/courtyard is outside and adjacent to the building.

Raising a baby is super busy and gnarly, but having no baby probably will be eventually tragic.

RRSP is one's covenant with his old-age financial security.

If one's more than 50 years old and he doesn't have RRSP, that is precarious.

I don't think I had ever eaten squash in China before coming to Canada.

The notorious traffic jams and air pollution in Beijing make such a massive groan that it's no longer a livable city, unless one has huge profit to pursue in it.

Yet many people choose not to hear it.

The fracking manna in the U.S. is so unexpected.

Labor, and job

It seems that in essence, workers in capitalist societies are detached from their jobs, so to speak. After they've spent years on a certain job or in a certain organization, naturally they would somewhat feel it's their own backyard. However, it happens in reality that the employer can just lock them out and tell them the jobs don't need them any more, without any advance notice, not even on the day before.

A worker doesn't own the job, he only owns his labor.

A worker sells his labor, and an employer buys it. And no one is selling a job, and no one is buying one. So, perhaps "job market" is a false name. And "labor market" is a much more suitable one.

厨艺

如果你想变得做菜好吃，生个孩子。

如果你想变得做菜好吃又快速，生两个。

如果你想变得象餐厅大厨一样专业，做菜好吃快速又成本低，生三个孩子吧。

:-)

MS Windows has increasingly become a nifty OS for power users.

However, its market share is doomed to decline largely.

In the marketplace over the past several years, the Windows operating system is not vanquished by Mac OS and iOS from Apple, it is done by Linux and its mobile derivative, which means Android.

It happens against the backdrop in the mobile computing sphere that many past and current Apple fans have switched to or been contemplating Android.

And, in the desktop computing sphere, I for one need Linux more than Windows.

Everything said, Windows is not without its own merits and advantages. For instance, I quite like the Windows Aero desktop environment present in Windows 7 and so on.

People and location names in the English language have their share of funniness or awkwardness.

"Dick" is obvious vulgarism.
There are so many "Waterloo"s in the world. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo. The question is, which loo in the world doesn't have water? Right? :-)
"Chester" should make ladies shy away. The guy "chest"s. Gee.
The name "Fortinbras" looks O.K. But, there's a but, how does it sound? What? "Fourteen bras"? Faint.

Just some joking words by me.

With the continuous emergence of facilitators, for one's biz adventures, where there's a will there's a way.

Note: I'm not sure if the above "facilitator" is the right word for it, but you get what I mean.

Less and less young people have the false expectation of climbing the corporate ladder.

Where's the ladder? Does it really exist?

The word "inheritance" has an obsolete meaning - "possession", "property".

Without any research over that, my sheer guess is it reflects a subtle shift in people's attitudes across centuries regarding properties. Hundreds of years ago, people's main stance towards possessions had been that they can be passed to their descendants. In modern times, that is they can be consumed by the properties' owners themselves.

Just a wild conjecture by me.

George W. Bush, the scion of President George H. W. Bush, also became a U.S. president himself.

Then, the Great Recession began under his helming. Look at what he'd done for the economy of the U.S. and the world. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush#Public_image_and_perception.

I used to squash and mince garlic for cooking. Now I just slice it.

A winter carnival simply means a winter festival.

I moan and groan about information overload.

"Yard", "yarn", and "gage" are all simple words which are used often in old English.

Last week, a water main broke in downtown Montreal, and it caused a deluge and then ice all over.

Montreal's infrastructure will need to be upgraded.

Courtyard provides a good additional function to a building.

For toddlers, Souri Mini makes nifty snow suits, but it seems they don't sell really warm mittens.

For parents with a toddler, household chores can often eat up almost a moiety of their waking hours.

By way of learning by doing, one can be seized of all the necessary skills and assets to make a successful biz, as long as he works hard and is courageous but doesn't get over-confident.

Everyone has moments of "monkey see, monkey do".

Some people squash their cardboard boxes before recycling. Then you know they care.

The ratification of Americans' gun ownership is by no means clear enough in the United States Constitution, it's been reputed.

"The wind moaned in the trees" is such a widely adopted expression in the English language.

You see that many people have used it: http://goo.gl/IJu6A .