When our toddler daughter cried "mommy" instead of "mama", I had a strange feeling that I, as a Chinese myself, have an outlander daughter.

Yes, my wife and I, a Chinese couple, bore a Westerner daughter.

The U.S.' perennial meddling in the Middle East seems to be largely caused by a crucial fact -- the oil produced by the Mideast is a critical energy source/input for the U.S. and its economy.

I might be too simplistic and naive over the particular issue though, because I've never studied the academic subject matters of History and Political Science.

Child stars often have big problems in their later life.

For example, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney.

Despite her professional triumphs, Garland battled personal problems throughout her life. Insecure about her appearance, her feelings were compounded by film executives who told her she was unattractive and manipulated her on-screen physical appearance. She was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She married five times, with her first four marriages ending in divorce. She had a long struggle with alcohol and drug use during most of her career, dying of an accidental drug overdose at the age of 47, leaving children Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft, and Joey Luft. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Garland

And see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Rooney#Personal_life .

The errant Z changes careers and industries often, which hasn't done him good over the last 10 years. He's still struggling in this world which is full of fierce competition, whether he knows that or not, in his 40s. He's never found his place in the world. Sigh.

Whether a young child has a mild temperament or not, she's quite amenable to her parents' words.

So be very careful with what you say to her or in the presence of her. And be very careful with what you shout at her, when she's pesty. :-)

Around 300 years ago, only the wealthy people in Canada could afford glassy windows for their houses. And average Joes and Janes only had house windows made of wood or something.

How the world has changed drastically.

During all my these years in Canada, it's my dentist whose courteousness has impressed me the most.

It seems that the drift of Stephen Harper's economic policies is that Canada is business-friendly and economy-friendly.

Some classic music pieces aren't hoary. Instead, they're intricate.

Discriminating eaters are apt to cook well.

If one cannot distinguish the delicious dishes and the mediocre ones, how can he make the former by himself?

How I wish that the Chinese cuisine proliferates to the entire society of Canada. That would make us Chinese Canadians' life easier and native Canadians' diet healthier.

I still remember last night's light flurries around -4 degrees Celsius.

You know, seeing the snow flakes askant flying down, and you didn't have to battle the cold so that you felt comfortable outside. That felt pretty good.

Pic - Willow

(Source: http://media.photobucket.com/image/willow%20tree/Serenity_Firefly_photos/Willow_Tree.jpg?o=21 )

The photo should be of CC license.

淒風苦雨 之後是 萬里蒼茫。萬里蒼茫 之後是 胸中丘壑、色彩、深度。

我早已在發心以後即登程。

The St. Denis street in Montreal has got a lot of local amenities. The French people knows to enjoy life.

It seems that in Canada, the baby boomer generation, who are currently retiring, has been and will be using up lots of financial resources that government funds possess.

And that will make the subsequent generations have less resources to enjoy, which has venomed some people of later generations.

With such a glut of young students around the world willing to pursue PhD degrees, if one hasn't shown very promising signs at a very early stage or one doesn't have the stamina to tough it out, it'll be a fool's errand for him to try to get a permanent job in the academia at all after his future graduation from his PhD program.

“豆豉” 应该怎么读？

我用谷歌拼音输入法时，总是没办法找出“豆豉”。所以，以前我都用“豆shi”暂代。

谷歌拼音输入法不能找出“豆豉”的原因是我打的拼音是“doushi”，其实正确的读音是“douchi”（“chi”为三声），我刚才查了字典找到的。我的家乡话里把“豆豉”读作接近于普通话里“豆shi”（“shi”为二声）的发音，可见我家乡的小城市的多数人都读这个白字。

可见，
1. 人还是要多跟有文化的人在一起，最少最少可以少读白字。
2. 当周遭环境不是最好的时候，文章、书籍、字典、工具书等等是破除无知、提升自我素养和能力的利器。

If one goes to work for a company whose the most major client is Canada Post, does it mean that he's lost his marbles?

Because it seems inevitable that the company, which mainly serves Canada Post, will have a big downsizing and shake-up down the road, at least.

Service companies provide services to customers, and then get commissions in return. Product companies offer products to clients, and then get payments back.

Ideally, it should always be mutual support and mutual respect between a biz and its customers. Of course, the reality always has different variations of that principle.

For the nonce of freedom of choosing, people have to bear the hassles of selecting and trying out different choices.

In Christianity, the Holy Grail is also called Holy Chalice.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Chalice#Association_with_the_.22Holy_Grail.22 .

Water from the sky falls in the form of either rain or snow. Air is always in its perennial form.

I don't know much about the Earth. And I don't know much about myself, a being with human nature.

Out of the blue, I sensed an opportunity and then devised a scheme. I proposed to partner up with D for a side project in order to hack the thing which is called "making a living".

Hopefully it'll be a win-win for both of us.

Ideologies are critical in the real world, because the differences among them are pivotal in the real world.

For instance, the U.S. has beefed up its military presence and power in the Asia Pacific. For example, it has opened six more military ports in Japan lately. What is the drift of that move? In order to contain the possible threats from North Korea, as well as China, and protect the interests of itself and its allies. Why that then? Because of the vast differences of ideologies between the West and the two countries, still.

The arrant gun problems in the U.S. scare lots of people. Despite its relatively high living standard, its quality of life isn't really very good.

Iran never is an amenable country. Sigh. Another war will possibly strike Mideast, the oil region.

See Rising risk of Western war on Iran.

Many people essayed entrepreneurship. Yet they didn't prepare themselves well during the process.

In Canada, one exchanges courtesies with people he runs into, day in and day out. You can say it's drab. But still, it's pivotal social lubricant.

I'm apt to read and consider. Increasingly, spending time on watching movies and TV isn't my cup of tea.

The contagion of provincialism should be avoided by some Canadian companies.

For instance, if RIM were in constant contact with the Silicon Valley, then probably it wouldn't have failed like this, at least not so fast.

There are two famous people who are named 'Carnegie' in the American history. And they are not related at all.

One is Andrew Carnegie, a historic biz tycoon and philanthropist, and the other Dale Carnegie, a famous inspirational speaker.

What are the moments of truth for a childcare centre?

I don't quite understand why the modern Western medicine has nearly entirely abandoned simples.

On the contrary, the usage of natural medicinal plants are still largely alive in the traditional Chinese medicine, which has remained widely and strongly popular in China.

In life, people often think that if you have a dream or a goal, you have to meet or achieve certain conditions in order to fulfill it.

In certain cases, it is true. For example, you must be healthy, if you want not to ultimately fail in your entrepreneurial endeavor, or if you want to manage your biz and make it survive and prosper.

But, this is a big but, in most cases, the above thought is NOT true. Realizing dreams or goals does NOT need conditions. For instance, some people are fond of traveling the world, and they think they cannot do it until they become millionaires. Look, that's NOT truly conditional. Most of them will not become millionaires. But they always can go around the world by working temporary jobs along the itinerary of their dream travelling.

So it is critical to be able to discern between the truly conditionals and the falsely conditionals. That is, to discern causation, correlation, and the spectrum between them.

As a personal example though, I always think that mastering English is truly conditional for an individual to competing well and collaborating well in Canada and in the setting of a globalized economy.

How many coffee stains form and then fade on a carpet?

How much sweat and tears are shed on a computer keyboard?

It may be the case that the next 5 - 10 years will see a profound change or transformation of the structure of the American capitalism. And that the mountebanks of sophisticated financial institutions will be fixed somehow.

Music video - Querer - composed by René Dupéré

D asks her cousin for an errand of picking up her toddler son at the kid's daycare centre almost everyday.

It's good to have relatives in the city you live. However, that's not possible for my wife and me, who came from China.

Music video - Coming Around Again / Itsy Bitsy Spider - Carly Simon

The MV is fantastic. One thing I don't quite understand though is why Carly Simon put the "Itsy Bitsy Spider", which is a children's song, into her performance.

I miss the raindrops of China, both oblique and straight.

You can follow me on Douban.com if you're interested.

Here's my Douban.com account: http://www.douban.com/people/streamline/ .

It is somewhat remiss of parents not to give their youngsters nearly the best possible education and foods. But that happens with more people than I used to imagine.

Music videos - Greensleeves - The Brothers Four

"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song which appeared in the late 16th century.

Lyrics:

Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have courted you so long,
Delighting in your company.

Greensleeves was all my joy,
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves, my heart of gold,
And who but my lady Greensleeves.

So, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu,
May good fortune prosper thee,
For I am still thy lover true,
Oh, come once again and love me.

By the way, what a deeply sad and gentle irony it is "Greensleeves, my heart of gold".

In fine, RIM has been toast, and now the two Co-CEOs have admitted it is toast.

See RIM Replaces CEOs as it Struggles to Answer Apple - Bloomberg.

Perennially allotting some time to do a bit of reading of novels in English is one good way to meet interesting and worthwhile new words, as well as to maintain or improve one's English proficiency.

Does democracy only varnish capitalism in the U.S.?

And, which one is the real ultimate top priority in the U.S., capitalism (free enterprise and free trade) or democracy?

An errant strand of hair falls over J's forehead. J's heart knows the lows. And he sighs.

Perhaps the later half of 2012 will see the pick up of the economies of the U.S. and Canada. It'll be the time to crush it.

J wants to talk with his wounds, softly.

Now we're seeing the twilight of RIM, the flagship hi-tech company of Canada. Analogously, how long will we wait before seeing the twilight of the currently booming energy industry of Alberta, Canada?

Personally I always think that a developed country can't largely depend on natural resources for prosperity. Maybe I'm ignorant about the energy industry, though.

Rudely I came, courteously I'll go. :-)

An ulcer for the human kind is the existence of nuclear weapons and the seemingly ongoing nuclear proliferation.

If you think about it, you'll feel that we live in a precarious world, where a nuclear bomb may blow for whatever reason which is utterly beyond rationality's control.

Knock the wood.

Such an apt expression by Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher once said:

To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the 'U-turn', I have only one thing to say: "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning."

Wow.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_lady's_not_for_turning .

I like the general quietness of Canadians. That lets everyone do his own thing and keeps him free from intrusions of noises.

Sourcing and procuring popular products is definitely a business competitive advantage.

对于有销路或畅销的产品，就每一笔消费者的交易来说，有库存现货的商家可以增加营收、扩大市占率。

而没有现货的商家会 suffer 一系列的后果。

Heineken made my night.

Some people expend a lot of their off-work hours and their money on speculating (albeit they call it 'investing') in the stock market, you know, buying and selling.

Essentially, they are spendthrifts, with a pipe dream of getting significantly richer by speculating, which has proven to be just a pipe dream, perennially, in the society.

I've been comparing many ebook reader apps for Android.

I like the Aldiko one.

My Android phone is the Motorola Milestone, so there's not a lot of memory available for me now. Otherwise, I'd also go with Kindle for Android by Amazon, which is apparently a sleek ebook reader app and whose feature set looks excellent.

Many of the jobs in big companies are cut-and-dried. And they are far removed from the real market.

The abatement of Kodak is so tragic.

See http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-17/kodak-and-the-brutal-difficulty-of-transformation.html .

实际上，很多创业的男人，午夜低回的时候，总有一些伤不起的感慨。

多年以前，有部日本电影，叫做《伤痕累累的勋章》。多好的名字。

Having to deal with constant snow and freezing rains is a pleurisy of living in Montreal.

If you cook Chinese dishes, more often than not, you need to cut vegetables more or less obliquely in order to let them absorb tastes more fully in the frying pan.

Chivas Regal 的广告词：“患难见真情”。

多么的有力量。

We've got a Whirlpool fridge at home. And it's not up to snuff.

Maybe the company will meet big troubles ahead if it doesn't take care of its product quality very seriously. You know, pretty many companies in the developing countries can make the same products cheaper and better, e.g. Haier.

I hadn't expected to see that so many Canadian university students work wholeheartedly with the goal of attaining almost immaculate transcripts without deep confusion about life when they still have the luxury of time to ponder about life.

Well, people are born different.

There seem to be perennial rebates going on in fashion brands stores in Montreal. You can always find some handsome rebates here or there.

When the big companies began to put the shareholders' value as their utmost priority, their attractiveness to ambitious young workers started to abate.

As a matter of fact, many Arab people have been having a hard time in the U.S. and Canada since the 9/11. The society shouldn't envenom them.

Appropriate tolerance should be kept in civilized societies.

Many daycare centres in Montreal tend to be a little too scholastic. Kids need to play more and imagine more.

Once upon a time, I was fond of having a place with a hearth.

At twilight, home life begins with our daughter.

J used to be constantly serious but not grave.

The images of Archangel Michael are so handsome and picturesque in general, especially those present in Kiev, the capital and the largest city of Ukraine.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_(archangel) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev .

Fancy looks the livery of the Swiss Guard in Vatican.

I still think Google should have been more courteous to its existing users. It knows how to lose users' hearts.

It seems Microsoft has done significantly better in that aspect than Google.

Unoccupied are most of the cubbyholes in the hallway of our toddler daughter's daycare centre. It's reasonable to expect that it'll change relatively soon.

Roughly speaking, it seems that these three tiers exist.

One is those people who know whom they are but have little marketable skills, so their money-earning capacities are limited for the time being. One example is those newly minted university grads who have majored in Arts.

Another tier is those people who sort of don't know whom they really are but have marketable skills, so their income-earning capacities are near the average.

The last is those people who both know whom they are and have marketable skills, so their earning power is at least somewhat above the average level.

The above is my guess. I might be wrong, and certainly I'm imprecise.

If you look along a certain dimension or perspective, many people want money because they need to solve their own problems.

At the same time, if you look along another dimension or perspective, many of those problems of them stem from their imprudent desires.

Facebook is filled to the brim with trivial information.

Socrates had been born roughly 40 years earlier than Plato was.

And the latter was a student of the former.

For English learning, efforts and time spent on it are apt tools.

Promo video - Mr. D - CBC TV series

Mr. D is an ultimately efficient teacher. And he plays by the rules, that is, by his own rules.

Wanting to do important things conscientiously is a first-rate trait, I think.

If one doesn't have it, well, the top tier probably isn't for him.

Some Chinese elderly regard themselves to be omniscient about life and so they become hardheaded. No, myriad of things in life are beyond their imagination.

I hope I won't become like that when I grow old.

Time is everyone's gyve. Successful are those who make the most splendid dance with it.

Are there too many oblique remarks in the world?

Now my life is emblematic of what a struggling entrepreneur has to go through.

The conjunctive metro station of Berri UQAM is a good place.

After several scattered rounds of controversy between G and me, the realization finally dawned on G that the give and take of obligations between her and her employer company is the annual working hours she must fulfill for the company, even if her job is an annually salaried one and not a part-time one.

Eventually Julian Assange, the founder of Wiki Leaks, will get his acquittance from the British court.

Otherwise people's trust of the British legal system will be shaken.

The keypad, integrated into a whole keyboard, on a desktop computer is much easier to be found and used by your fingers than the one on a laptop computer.

Interestingly, I've found that while schools in China are apt to be quite authoritarian and exam-oriented, their counterparts in Canada also are much exam-oriented, although not authoritarian.

Sometime I feel like my thoughts and enjoyment are intruded by the noises on the road when I take a walk outside or anything.

In the future, if I get relatively rich and everything, I'd like to buy a house in the woods or something, then I'll go and spend some time over there now and then.

One should celebrate food. And one should celebrate sports.

A great many things in life aren't black or white.

For instance, I'm not very satisfied with some aspects of Montreal. However, Montreal has done me quite a good turn.

學歷不代表貢獻，更不代表經濟貢獻。

Everyone will encounter his or her own fair share of jerks and bitches in life.

Sorry for the offensive "b..." word. I don't know yet if there's a good substitute word for that meaning.