I frown at information overload.

But what can I do?

I must keep relevant.

It's said that Bill Clinton is a power broker and kingmaker in American politics.

Why, and how?

It seems that McGill University's head is called "Principal", while Queen's U's head "Rector".

Confusing.

Only now I've known that Maritimes and Atlantic Canada are almost synonyms.

I for one don't like to see bad blood between teachers and the government over labor disputes.

Should all schools be privatized and all parents get monetary vouchers and then get to choose their children's schools freely? i.e. let the free market mechanism, instead of unions and the government, decide which teachers get paid more and which ones less?

It appears that many pundits have sanguinely predicted that we'll PROBABLY see an economic boom by the end of the current presidential term of Obama.

Facebook wants to parlay its success in desktop sphere into another one in mobile sphere.

Let's watch. Anyhow, I've always felt Facebook is a little stale. Maybe it's just me.

Having seen Canadian hi-tech firms smitten, or bought up, by competition doesn't leave Canadians sanguinity about the country's tech sector.

Nortel, ATI, RIM, ...

I had lost a certain prospect with a cost-driven project.

I never felt loss for that.

The parley between Israel and Palestine has been on the focus of world media, again and again and again.

See Israel and Palestine: Barriers to peace | The Economist.

风漫天，雪舞银蛇。

在这个雪夜，想起了姜夔的“夜雪初积”（《暗香》）。

The topics and discussion about iPhones and iPads have been taking a whopping chunk of web sphere.

However, Steve Jobs, who reputedly had single-handedly created the Apple legend and the cult around its products, ALREADY passed away. Are there sufficient reasons to support that Apple will go on dominating the world and the stock market capitalization?

Randall is a good name.

A kernel in any relationship is, trust or distrust.

If one is stuck in enjoying creature comfort, then he's hopeless.

I guess that's why some aristocrats are apt to somewhat despise nouveaux riches.

Busted has been the avouchment that essential oils used in aromatherapy are good for people's health.

"... aromatherapy oils are volatile oraganic compounds (VOCs), which are considered indoor air pollutants that can irritate the eyes, throat, and lungs."

"... spas that offer massage therapy using fragrant essential oils may have elevated levels of potentially harmful indoor air pollutants such as VOCs and ultrafine particles, according to an article in the journal Environmental Engineering Science." 

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/2012/12/03/aromatherapy-soothes-stress-but-don-breathe-too-many-vapors-study/KlItTjOzvxFSHjhNGGLSQI/story.html

In this era of people earnestly combating environmental pollution on this Earth, why at the same time do some of them pollute indoor air that they themselves breathe in?

One has low monetary consumption doesn't necessarily mean he has low income.

A few ex-employees of Budget Rent A Car's certain Vancouver outlets have publicly avouched that there's been a fleecing scheme going on.

See Budget Rent a Car fraud claims probed by RCMP.

Ouch.

有的时候，英文比中文更有诗意，更美。

比如说，sundew (a.k.a. drosera) 要比其中文名称“毛毡（氈）苔”有意境得多。

Microsoft has been putting its weight behind pushing its disruptively unconventional Windows 8 operating system, as well as MS Surface tablets.

It's a very, very sensible strategy, IMHO. The Redmond giant almost desperately needs to pinpoint and grab new growth markets, even as its financial performance has been excellent.

It seems that while in my teens and twenties, I had felt melancholy generally.

By contrast, I've been feeling sanguine in my thirties.

Looking back, brilliant has been the usurpation of the market dominance of Nokia and RIM by Apple's iPhone and iPad, as well as Google's Android devices.

The management, as well as the shareholders, of Nokia and RIM must have lived with bitter regrets these years.

See what Mr. Michael Walkley said lately about RIM's stock rally at Canaccord Genuity says RIM shares are overpriced and puts a 'sell' on its stock.

And see how RIM's stock price has been miserably hovering around its sum-of-parts analysis value throughout this year of 2012 at https://www.google.ca/finance?client=ob&q=TSE:RIM .

Music videos - 后来 - 刘若英

後來
詞：施人誠 曲：玉城千春（日本） 編曲：王繼康

後來　我總算學會了 如何去愛　
可惜你 早已遠去　消失在人海
後來　終於在眼淚中明白　
有些人　一旦錯過就不再

梔子花 白花瓣　落在我藍色百褶裙上
愛你　你輕聲說　我低下頭聞見一陣芬芳
那個永恆的夜晚　十七歲仲夏　你吻我的那個夜晚
讓我往後的時光　每當有感嘆　總想起當天的星光

那時候的愛情　為什麼就能那樣簡單
而又是為什麼　人年少時　一定要讓深愛的人受傷
在這相似的深夜裡　你是否一樣　也在靜靜追悔感傷
如果當時我們能　不那麼倔強　現在也不那麼遺憾

你都如何回憶我　帶著笑或是很沉默
這些年來　有沒有人能讓你不寂寞

永遠不會再重來　有一個男孩　愛著那個女孩

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0igPuDjYUE

Work and life are two quite different kettles of fish.

貌似中国社会越来越直接了，多少真实的人间故事就走着 屌丝 和 黑木耳 的套路。

I was harrowed by what I saw in the portrait and description of the life of aging parents with developmentally disabled child.

Plastic dog kennels look better than wooden ones.

Restaurants in China should begin to adopt the Western notion and practice of customers giving gratuities to waiters and waitresses.

Or some similar form of profit-sharing such as that they get a percentage of the profits.

Alberta, Canada is alleged by some media to possess a proven oil reserve which is 7 times bigger than that of Saudi Arabia.

Someone in Canada must be happily thinking, "release the kraken!"

Although the world is changing increasingly faster and it has created information overload for nearly everyone, you still want to spend time to mark the trends.

Canada's vast energy reserve has been unleashed.

Will this country of 30 million people be blindfolded by that and then only focus on the energy sector? I don't think so.

't is, 'tis, and 'a

It's relatively easy to guess that 't is  and 'tis mean it is, while it's not so to guess that 'a means he.

The most common phenomenon during funerals is the family members break off in their public speaking.

It's moving, especially at soldiers' funerals.

Now I've become a safe pair of hands in the family kitchen.

But I'm confined in Chinese cooking.

Nearly everyone endorses innovation.

But not nearly everyone has the courage to make it.

Peace. Eventually green energies will illume the energetic sky of the human kind.

Since the beginning of the Great Recession, I for one don't like to hear yet some new troubling financial news assailing from yet another country.

Yet it happened almost every quarter.

And, oftentimes, there are other kettles of fish which are worrisome, such as the continuous rise of the obesity rate among North Americans.

Do American politicians especially like to play chicken?

Fracking oil domestically will set the U.S. free from foreign oil dependence.

That prospect is just too alluring for the country.

Is duel and competition among opposing political parties really necessary for democracy?

The winds have unkennelled winter.

A quote

"Tush, child, tush," said the old Frog, "that was only Farmer White's Ox.
-Fables by Aesop

To develop a deep sense of gratitude requires intelligence and wisdom, I think.

Do most rice kernels look very good? No.

Do they taste good with Chinese dishes? Definitely.

A man has to entreat at some point(s) in his life.

I'm not sure if the basmati rice from India we've been eating these weeks is authentic or not.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basmati#Adulteration for the commonplace adulteration of basmati rice.

Roe vs. caviar

The other day, I saw a picture of one sort of Scandinavian "Salmon roe" dish in a posh Globe and Mail style guide. And later that day I saw a written promotional note with a "caviar" dish on it, on a wall of one small and inexpensive Chinese restaurant.

Documentary videos - Witness : To the Last Drop

After having watched the below two videos, I was awestruck by the vastness of Alberta, Canada's oil reserve, as well as the horrible pollution it will potentially unkennel, especially for the lengthy Athabasca River, which is about 1,200km.

Witness : To the Last Drop - Part 1

Witness : To the Last Drop - Part 2

It seems that some native Chinese inhabitants are sick at heart.

A liege is not a liegeman.

The former is a superior of the latter.

There are many things in life which are into the ground, if one wants to really achieve something.

He's a ground.

Scientists say brisk walking can extend one's life by 2 years.

Houses and apartments have been becoming increasingly dual-purpose, as more and more people work from home.

Dogs need to be kenneled and humans need to be sheltered.

Dog rights and human rights.

Canada's energy sector has been bidding foreign investors come and invest. What a phenomenon.

Overlooked should not be the supreme importance of curiosity, which adds zest to life.

While life unfolds for an individual, he understands it more.

And he understands how many headaches there are in life.

Sometime you think the service provided by a waiter or waitress doesn't deserve gratuities, but you still offer them to him anyways.

However, the restaurant probably won't see you again.

Are you fair to the waiter or waitress? Are you fair to the cook who might have cooked you an excellent meal?

In that sense, the waiter or waitress is sort of a salesperson, and he shouldn't have an entirely fixed pay for his work by the restaurant.

Currently I live dual life. One resides in the day, and the other in the night.

In both of them, I stare into the computer screen in front of me.

Will Canada oppose its Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and denounce the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (Canada-China FIPA) eventually?

See Stephen Harper defends investment deal with China.

Movie snippet - 警棍實戰棍法（甄子丹 vs 吳京）

What a bout of martial fighting. It's violent and bloody, though.

I don't know why "a plate of soup, a dish of meat, fruit, cheese, and half a bottle of wine" can be considered to be only a "frugal" dinner.

Is it according to French standard? :-)

See Chapter 41 of Maugham's Of Human Bondage at http://maugham.thefreelibrary.com/Of-Human-Bondage/41-1 .

I'm made cringe by the notorious caloric intake of Americans and Canadians, even in a medium-sized cookie which appears to be no big deal, which is in fact 450.

And to my surprise, a typical portion of dressed salad contains more calories than its commonplace sidekick, a typical hamburger. Gee.

Since around 3 or 4 months ago, I've been pretty sure that RIM would inevitably decline greatly.

But I'm almost always curious over how things are going for it. So almost every week, I briefly check online news about it.

That behavior of mine shows that curiosity and cues from an individual's surroundings leads to finer granularity of knowledge.

Shun sycophants.

For consumers, the choice of mobile computing devices used to be a duel between Apple's i-products and Google's Android. It's no longer the case.

We've been seeing so many powerful contenders very quickly assemble onto the scene. Microsoft is the one with the most potential, I think. However, I'm not sure how many consumers will be capable to appreciate the alleged excellent values of Windows 8 and Windows Phone operating systems, and perhaps more critically, how many developers will be willing to follow the leading of Microsoft platforms. And that's the most difficult problem for MS, as well as the factor of how well Google will perform with its formidable arrays of deep products and services. Besides, Apple's fanboys will always be there and be highly influential.

Gratitude is one of the characteristics which distinguish between good people and those who're not good enough, I think.

"White space" has become such a widespread biz jargon.

But what're the differences between it and the well known and well worn "Blue ocean" jive?

What's the moat around your business?

You want to be thrifty, but you don't want to be frugal.

Compared with Google the formidable innovator, Microsoft has been releasing key new products at a glacial pace.

Sigh.

They both are long-time friends for me as a consumer. But the latter is always apt to be greatly more trusty than the former, IMHO.

For the past a few days and nights, my wife, toddler daughter, and myself have been plagued by gastroenteritis.

I used to keep forgetting the right spelling and pronunciation of the word "granularity".

Ontario's Premier, Dalton McGuinty, prorogued Ontario's parliament.

And that has caused even more criticism against him.

Gigantic is the industry of making and selling knits and wovens.

Do nearly all the "he" (high efficiency) detergents suds less than regular ones?

The Trudeau family name carries so much cachet in Montreal and Canada.

Does living in the country in Canada infer frugality?

Almost, I think.

Many youngsters in Montreal are not thrifty.

That life habit will cost them handsomely down the road.

Well, I didn't know that the English word "cereal" can roughly equal to "grain".

Rice, wheat, barley, and rye all belong to the category of cereals. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereal .

And granola is normally considered to be one type of breakfast cereal.

If one wants to understand the reasons behind the great concerns of the U.S. over Iran and the Somalian pirates, he must understand the strategically important choke points of Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Hormuz
and
http://maps.google.ca/maps?sugexp=chrome,mod%3D0&qscrl=1&q=the+Strait+of+Hormuz&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x3ef7184c25840e51:0x3d7b86ccdd367e5a,Strait+of+Hormuz&gl=ca&sa=X&ei=vPWFUP0Zk7_RAf6IgKAC&ved=0CJ8BELYD .

I saw a U.S. Air Force jacket, which is of the sort that bikers often wear, last night.

The style of that jacket looks good, with Chinese words on the back.

Montreal's mafia mogul, Vito Rizzuto, had been arrested for racketeering, loan sharking, and murder some six years ago, and then was released from a U.S. prison lately.

He had been considered to be the most powerful mafia boss in Canada. And he's returned to Canada.

It has profound consequences on Quebec's society, considering the ongoing police investigation into the close links among Quebec's construction industry, mafia, and some Quebec politicians.

Facebook isn't very satisfying. Which social networking website is gonna whup it?

Who can mollify the Americans who've seen their prosperity dim?

A president who can create decent-paying jobs.

Kaboom. I've stumbled on the PowerShell on my Win7 machine.

Well, natural rubber latex is, natural.

But hospitals and people have been running to escape from it to hypoallergenic latex-free alternatives.

See http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=4148 .

If I followed the instructions on the detergent bottles and only added a cap of the detergent, the washing water in my portable washing machine would never be sudsy enough to convince me that it would give a proper laundering.

Many Chinese have lived through abject poverty.

What an era of have-nots.

It seems that thrift is the one thing which is hard to get by the people born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

Conscious people know to avoid fawning, towards others and towards herself.

I know a widower whose condo got burned down.

How life's misfortunes can hit again and again, especially when one's old.

Poncho is different than raincoat.

The local Unibroue beers aren't bad at all. Nice.

Heck, a Release the Kraken underwear.

See http://www.jinx.com/p/release_the_kraken_boxer_briefs.html .

What a fantastic adoption of the great meme.

It seems that in many Hong Kong movies I've watched over the years, rooftops appear in them often.

Are those scenes a beacon that Hong Kong people crave for hard-to-get space?

Are most cheap things inevitably shoddy? At the end of the day, you get what you paid for.

Watching stand-up comedies is a good way to amuse oneself.

碎波秋水，青葱节气已过。

If to demand bribes is customary in a country, then what sorts of people and businesses want to conduct business in that country?

And do the business clients and average consumers lose in that country? And what do they lose?