1756 - 1763 年，英、法两大欧洲强权在北美洲这个 new world 为了争夺国土和经济利益，Seven Years' War 打得白热化。

英国从本土动用超过 5 万的陆军、超过 160 艘 warships 的海军，参与这远隔大洋的 Seven Years' War，和法国陆军、海军在北美洲艰苦对决。

同一时段，中国为大清帝乾隆统治，闭关锁国、“禁海、毁船、禁船、迁界”，完全扼杀航海（见 http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/no05/1/161560.shtml ），真的是不知今夕何夕。明、清二朝，没能与时俱进，框定中国几百年的衰弱落后格局。

It seems that every mass migration of an ethnic group which is forced by another government causes tremendous misery and poverty for that group. For instance, the Acadians were forced by arms to leave their homes in Acadia for other British colonies in North America in 1755.

See The Acadian Odyssey. I read the section "A Day of Great Fatigue" in it.

And this poem Evangeline seems to be powerful and gripping.

When we compare two countries' military forces, maybe there's not much difference on the individual level, say, country A's best sharpshooter isn't that different from country B's best sharpshooter, but it's the organization level and technology level which make all the differences.

It's said that Quebec City has always been more pompous and stuffy than Montreal historically.

Typically a man in his thirties and forties feels hemmed in by his work and family obligations.

I'm not sure if our baby daughter has displayed some trace of providence.

After having been cut off from most people's diets, lard has become a delicate which gets really enjoyed on occasions, ironically.

See this online post: 炒芥兰.

It seems that Netflix, which was the one up-and-coming competitor which drove Blockbuster out of business, has been on the cutting edge of some technological fronts, for instance, recommendation system.

However, it seems that particular company has also been quickly losing customers' hearts. It's even been reported that people think Netflix, along with Kodak, RIM and the like, will not be in existence in 2015. It's that bad for the once renowned pioneering Netflix.

When it rains, it pours.

Untitled

That tree did not know
How to love itself
It only cared about sky
Since it was made by the spy

If time could back flow
It would still not know
But now it loves itself
Softly

You want to be kind. Sometime you have to be a doormat.

I don't know anything about the mechanism of the formation of canker sores.

The racing car was tumbling out of control on the computer screen.

Maybe Canada's welfare system is something like a judo mat, which one can fall back on and so doesn't get completely hurt and then can stand up again and continue to strive. However, some people mistake the purpose of it.

Freedom is an authoritative right for individuals in Canada. How to make good use of it?

Fie on our irritable baby daughter. She's too ungentle sometimes.

My wife and I will have to tame her a bit in the future when she can effectively communicate with us.

Deep inside in China

Around a decade ago, having been restricted by many government policies in China, I was chary of really putting all my energy and passion into pursuing a long-term thinking and career. Essentially I didn't trust there's a real guarantee or something that the gains of my efforts wouldn't be lost because the government could and would change its pervasive policies freely at any time which can be either expected or not expected by me. So I came to Canada when the opportunity presented itself.

Nowadays, it seems that many people feel the same way as I did many years ago, despite the fact that many reported individuals among them are rich but I was poor. See this NYT news piece: Harassment and Evictions Bedevil Even China’s Well-Off.

I can say that I always want to expend the time of my life charily and I cherish that time.

Alack, too much work for the first two years of raising a baby.

Hopefully the workload will be reduced a great deal after our baby daughter becomes two or three. That's been assured by some other experienced parents.

When J frizzled the Cantonese sausage slices, he forgot to sprinkle a little Chinese cooking wine near the end into the frying pan.

Google, whose free and excellent services I had largely enjoyed, have pressed two importunities on me in the recent two years or so. One was that they stopped the development of Google Notebook altogether, the other was that they supplanted the nice sharing capabilities in Google Reader with their Google+ functionality.

I for one don't feel good about that. On the other hand, nonetheless I thank Google for the suave services it had provided at zero financial cost to a typical consumer like me.

It seems that the scouring pads attached on the dishwashing sponges, which are sold at dollar stores, have been becoming shoddier and shoddier.